Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday warned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) not to be too optimistic about its prospects in the Taipei mayoral election in November, saying the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had yet to launch what he expects to be a “mudslinging campaign.”
In comments published in Neo Formosa Weekly, which resumed publication in electronic format in September last year, Chen said it was unfair to say that the DPP’s candidate for Taipei City mayor, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), and its candidate for the soon-to-be-renamed Sinbei City, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), were not committed to their campaigns and had set their sights on the next presidential election in 2012.
“I believe they are both serious about the elections and want to win,” Chen said. “However, it is possible that their dreams may not come true.”
Chen said that based on his own experience, he was serious about his campaign when he was seeking re-election for Taipei mayor in 1998. Despite an 80 percent approval rating, Chen said he still lost the bid, although he won the presidential election in 2000.
The DPP has a good chance of making a clean sweep in the Nov. 27 polls, but it will not be easy, he said.
The likeliest result would be a DPP win in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung, with losses in Taipei, Sinbei and Greater Taichung, Chen said. However, the margin would not be significant and the DPP was likely to make substantial gains in the overall ballots, far exceeding those of the KMT, he said.
In the capital, Chen said that although Su was currently leading the polls, the election was still too close to call.
“Don’t overlook the city’s special electoral structure,” he said. “The candidate’s governance capability is not the only thing that matters ... I find some pan-green supporters and Su’s camp are overly upbeat. It is very dangerous.”
Chen also said the pan-green candidates should brace themselves for a pan-blue camp smear campaign, adding that the KMT would never abandon such tactics.
Chen said “those who know the ropes” could clearly see that Su and Tsai are using the November elections as their tickets to the presidential election in 2012. Regardless of the result of the November elections, Chen said he believed Tsai stood a better chance of representing the DPP in the presidential poll.
Meanwhile, more than 30 DPP and independent candidates for the municipal council elections launched a “one side, one country” alliance at the former president’s office yesterday, where a team responsible for stumping for the candidates was also unveiled.
The former president’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), who is running as an independent for city councilor in Greater Kaohsiung, is among the members of the alliance. He said he would work to realize his father’s political ideal of “Taiwan and China, one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait.”
Former minister of foreign affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) is president of the alliance, with Lee Hong-hsi (李鴻禧), honorary professor at National Taiwan University’s College of Law, serving as vice president.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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