The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to organize a million-people rally in the last week before Jan. 13’s presidential and legislative elections to bolster support for the party’s candidates, a party source said yesterday.
The theme and format of the rally are to be decided and announced as early as next week, they added.
In addition, the party plans to hold 20 large-scale campaign stump events nationwide in the final two weeks before the election, with the aim that each would attract a crowd of 10,000, said an unnamed source in the campaign team for the DPP’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德).
Photo: CNA
The heated phase of the election season would soon arrive and the presidential candidates are expected to stump for the party’s candidates, with support from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), they said.
The DPP’s objective is to keep the Presidential Office and its legislative majority, they said, adding the party is planning multiple campaign events in battleground counties and special municipalities, including New Taipei City.
The Lai campaign views young people and independent voters as key to winning the election, they added.
According to the source, Lai enjoys decent support among young voters but there is potential for improvement in that demographic, while the campaign’s social media game did not take off until the relatively late months of April and May.
DPP vice-presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) politics-and-cat-themed Youtube channel Warrior Cat Bi-khim has been a significant boost for the Lai campaign’s presence on the Internet, they said.
Meanwhile, Lai and his running mate Hsiao are expected today to open their national campaign headquarters in Taipei.
The Taipei Police Department yesterday issued a traffic control notice for the event that would take place on Beiping E Road and Hangzhou N Road.
The affected roads would be closed from 8am to midnight, it said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
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