Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday announced that he would run for chairman of the nation’s largest opposition party, pledging to draft Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) as the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2028.
Lo promised to nominate Lu within three months of next year’s local elections and then step down, supporting her to take over as chair.
He said that uniting the party under a single candidate is the only path to victory in the next presidential election.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The KMT lost in 2016, 2020 and last year because multiple contenders weakened the party and benefited the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he said.
He had proposed a “grand alliance for party rotation” with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) before last year’s presidential election, but it was not adopted, leading to division in the opposition and enabling President William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP to win with 40 percent of the vote, he said.
Such division must not be repeated in next year’s elections or in 2028, Lo said.
He said he would again establish the alliance and create a system for regular consultations with the leader of the TPP.
The KMT and TPP would seek to deepen parliamentary cooperation, election cooperation that respected the TPP’s independence and “justice cooperation.”
As part of justice cooperation, Lo said he would encourage the creation of a “political persecution investigation committee,” adding that the KMT must make a key policy pledge on seeking redress for former TPP chairman and Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), detained on corruption and bribery charges, and Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), a former head of the KMT’s Taipei branch office who this month pleaded guilty in a case related to forging signatures for recall petitions.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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