Former Taipei EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡公司) chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) emerged as the winner yesterday in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) primary for the Taipei mayoral election later this year after defeating his main competitor, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), by a landslide.
The eldest son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) secured more than twice as many ballots as Ting to seal his selection as the ruling party’s candidate for the Taipei mayoral contest.
The winner was decided by a total score comprised of each candidate’s showing in a telephone poll conducted on April 12 and 13 that accounted for 70 percent of the score, and the vote among party members, which made up the remaining 30 percent.
Photo: CNA
Sean Lien edged Ting in the telephone poll, gaining the support of 39.717 percent of respondents to the lawmaker’s 36.992 percent, while receiving 10,647 of the 15,758 ballots cast in the internal vote, while Ting had 4,765, according to the KMT’s Taipei branch.
A total of 37,860 KMT members were eligible to participate in yesterday’s primary poll, but voter turnout still fell short of 50 percent at 41.622 percent.
The final score put Sean Lien, who sits on the KMT’s Central Committee, first with 48.19 percent, followed by Ting’s 35.018 percent.
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) were also in the race, but Tsai on Thursday bowed out at the last minute and urged his fellow party members to vote for Sean Lien instead.
In announcing his withdrawal, Tsai also disclosed the results of the telephone poll on Thursday, saying that the numbers showed he was too far behind to win, having come third with 17.5 percent, leading only Chung, who had 5.8 percent.
Ting later that day said that Tsai’s poll data were false and misleading, saying that while the candidates were allowed to dispatch observers to “audit and undertake random checks” at polling stations, the results remained confidential, so there was no way that they could get hold of the exact numbers.
Accusing Tsai of having been cooperating with the eventual winner’s camp all along by playing the role of a “foil” to Sean Lien’s “nice guy,” Ting said Tsai had been playing an unfair game from the beginning of the selection process.
After yesterday’s results were announced, Ting said that despite his defeat, he would put all his efforts toward supporting Sean Lien in the upcoming election.
Although the voting is meant to be confidential, the media accidentally saw President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ballot yesterday.
The indiscretion occurred when the president, who is also the party’s chairman, was photographed holding a ballot that, despite being folded, showed a red circle stamped on the No. 3 candidate, Ting.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS