Despite speculation and encouragement from supporters, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) yesterday announced that he would not run in next year’s presidential election, adding that he would fully support Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) campaign.
“I will not join the DPP primary for next year’s presidential candidate,” Lai told reporters at a charity event in Tainan. “First of all, I think it’s more important to hold on to values than hold any positions, and I don’t necessarily have to be the person who leads the party to victory.”
Lai added that Tsai has been preparing to run in next year’s election for a long time and is a good candidate to represent the DPP, “since she has led the DPP to stand up again after its defeat in 2008 and it was under her leadership that the DPP was able to win in the nine-in-one local elections last year.”
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
“The DPP should stand united and give its full support to Tsai — and I will also give my best wishes to her,” Lai said.
He said that he did not want to quit his current position now, as he has a rare chance to reform local politics in Tainan, adding that “it is more important to uphold a value than hold a position.”
Although Lai said he would not take part in next year’s presidential election and the DPP finalized its nomination schedule last month, many supporters as well as DPP politicians — including former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) — have expressed their support for Lai, with Koo even promising the media that Lai would decide to run in the end.
However, Lai declined to answer when asked if he decided not to run because his support rate is much lower than Tsai’s.
Meanwhile, Tsai said she respects Lai’s decision and lauded him as a courageous and talented politician.
“Lai is an excellent political leader in the party; what he has accomplished as mayor of Tainan makes him a role model in leadership and governance,” Tsai said. “I especially admire him for his courage in fighting against dirty money and reforming local politics.”
“As Lai is an excellent politician, I would like to invite him to be part of the 2016 presidential election [campaign],” she added.
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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