Former vice premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took nearly 60 percent of the votes in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson race yesterday to become the party's first chairwoman.
About 129,000 of the party’s 250,000 eligible members voted in yesterday’s election, making the turnout 51.7 percent. Tsai triumphed with 73,892 votes, or 57.1 percent, while former senior presidential adviser, 82-year-old Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), received 48,882 votes, or 37.8 percent.
Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), who dropped out of the race to throw his support behind Koo, received 6,530 votes as his withdrawal was anounced too late for his name to be erased from the ballots.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Tsai topped Koo in most constituencies except for Chiayi City, Penghu, Hualien, Chuanghua and with overseas party members.
Outgoing DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), accompanied by Tsai and Koo, held a press conference at DPP headquarters in Taipei to announce Tsai’s victory.
“With more than 73,000 party members voting for her, Miss Tsai Ing-wen has officially been elected the new chairwoman of the party,” Hsieh said. “I would like to offer my congratulations to her.”
Koo conceded defeat immediately and congratulated Tsai.
The chairwoman-elect vowed to overcome all challenges.
“As the party chair race comes to an end, our challenges are just beginning,” Tsai said. “After [tomorrow], we will become an opposition party, and will have no more resources — but I am determined to lead the party into a new age.”
She said that under her leadership the DPP would work more closely with civic groups and grassroots organizations.
“The DPP will protect Taiwan’s sovereignty, its democracy and insist on social justice,” she said. “I’m confident that we can restore the public’s faith in the party and the DPP will rise again.”
Asked about power struggles and conflicts among the party’s many factions, Tsai said she was not concerned.
“Of course there were conflicts during the [party chair] race, but there were no wounds,” she said. “And as a party that’s going out of power, I don’t think there will be any power struggles. Instead, there will be only shouldering of responsibility — and we welcome anyone to join us to share that responsibility.”
Tsai said she would seek advice from inside and outside the party.
“I will start by talking to Koo and Chen Shih-meng [陳師孟], since they’ve presented many great ideas during the election campaign,” Tsai said.
Chen was the top campaigner for Koo during the party chair race.
As former chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council, Tsai said she would pay close attention to the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s cross-strait policies.
“We’ll remind them when their policies lack careful consideration and we’ll criticize them when they make mistakes,” Tsai said.
Immediately after Hsieh announced the election results a DPP member surnamed Huang (黃) appeared at the press conference venue and shouted out: “The election is invalid! The valid vote number is zero!”
He was quickly removed by party staff.
In addition to electing the party chairperson, DPP members also voted for directors of the party’s local chapters.
Several former legislators who were defeated in January’s legislative elections won local chapter directorships, including Taipei County director Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), Miaoli County director Tu Wen-ching (杜文卿), Taichung County’s Kuo Chun-ming (郭俊銘), Chunghua County’s Charles Chiang (江昭儀) and Tainan County’s Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠).
Legislator Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱) was elected Kaohsiung County chapter director.
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
BAIL APPEALS: The former vice premier was ordered to be held incommunicado despite twice being granted bail and paying a total of NT$12 million in bond The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered the detention of former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who is being investigated for alleged corruption while serving as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022, and that he be held incommunicado. The court made the ruling during a bail hearing after prosecutors appealed its bail ruling twice. Cheng on Saturday was released after posting bail of NT$5 million (US$153,818). However, after prosecutors lodged an appeal, the High Court on Monday revoked the original ruling and ordered the Taoyuan District Court to hold another bail hearing. On Tuesday, the district court granted bail to Cheng a second
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
HAN KUANG: The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers said The armed forces would for the first time test new rules of engagement (ROE) at this month’s annual Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers told a news conference in Taipei. ROE cards would be issued to select combat troops to test their ability to function without tight control, they said. The most recent edition of the rules was published last year, they said. One of the cards’ two templates identifies enemy targets that soldiers