Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday announced that he was resigning as a legislator as a demonstration of his unwavering determination to win the election.
“Taipei has been stagnant for eight years, and it cannot afford to stand still any more as we are facing a fast-changing world,” he said while campaigning at a traditional market in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投).
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-hua (林奕華), Chiang’s campaign manager, said that Chiang would from now on fully concentrate on campaigning for the mayoral election to win voters’ approval.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Asked about the announcement, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that Chiang made his decision based on his political judgement.
“I do not have any particular feeling about his resignation because his functions in the Legislative Yuan are not indispensable,” Chen said.
DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤), Chen’s campaign manager, said that voters can clearly see the move was nothing more than a campaign tactic.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“When asked whether he would resign, Chiang on Wednesday compared his situation to cooking rice, which when cooked, needs to be left a little longer for it to taste good. Then, he gave up his legislative seat within 24 hours,” she said. “I think that Chiang resigned because he sensed that his campaign had gone south. Fearing that he would be soon overtaken by his rivals, he used a drastic measure in a bid to regain an advantage.”
Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said that Chiang’s move came a bit too late.
“I tendered my resignation as Taipei deputy mayor soon after I announced in August that I was running for Taipei mayor. Chiang announced his mayoral bid in May. His resigning now is just for show,” Huang said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“I believe Taipei residents neither favor pan-blue nor pan-green politicians. They already have in mind who would be the best Taipei mayor,” she said.
“Taipei is too important to be a training ground for two years to be a mayor,” she said, taking a jibe at criticism that Chiang lacks administrative experience.
The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday called for 11 other legislators who are running in the Nov. 26 elections to follow Chiang and tender their resignation.
“Serving as a legislator while campaigning for election will definitely compromise the quality of their bills,” NPP Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said. “It is unreasonable that they get government-issued campaign funds while still being paid as legislators.”
The NPP urged voters to reject candidates with criminal records or who are suspected of election bribery.
Statistics from the Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association showed that 193 candidates for city and county councilors as well as township representatives have criminal records, including 65 KMT candidates, 35 DPP candidates and 11 from other parties, it said.
As of last month, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has accepted 1,433 election bribery cases involving 3,144 suspects, it said.
Among the 1,433 cases, 362 were reported in September and 826 were reported last month, it said.
Additional reporting by Wang Chien-hao and Ho Yu-hua
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS