Newly nominated Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said he would take a three-month leave of absence from his job as New Taipei City mayor, starting today, to focus on his campaign.
New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) will stand in for Chu during his absence.
Chu, who is only 10 months into his second four-year term, made the announcement after a meeting of the New Taipei City Council in the morning, which had been brought ahead from today.
Photo: CNA
“I was nominated on Saturday to represent the KMT in next year’s presidential election, for which I must apologize to every resident of the city because I had pledged on more than one occasion that I would not join the race,” Chu said.
“It is a painful, but necessary decision that needed to be made at such a critical moment,” he said.
Chu’s decision to throw his hat into the ring for the Jan. 16 presidential election has triggered a wave of criticism from the public and some inside the KMT, largely because of his oft-repeated promise to serve out his term as mayor.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang’s (段宜康) on Sept. 26 estimated that Chu had made the promise 24 times between June last year and May.
Chu, who also serves as KMT chairman, said a presidential election concerns a nation’s future and its major policies, and that he must take on the responsibility of offering the public a healthier democracy.
Given the nearness of the election, Chu said he had asked his administrative officials to stand fast at their posts and work as a team.
“During this interim period, Deputy Mayor Hou will face a heavy workload, but my administration is confident of its ability to go a good job governing the municipality,” Chu said.
He said he would remain in close contact with his team through various channels, including mobile messaging app Line.
If elected president, he plans to expand many of his successful policies and experiences as mayor on a nationwide scale, Chu said.
“I also plan to bring the resources of the central government back to the city,” he added.
In a move to defuse criticism about his decision to enter the presidential race without stepping down as mayor, Chu said it is customary, at home and abroad, for politicians to run for new offices without resigning from their current posts.
“It is my belief that as long as a candidate’s team is capable of doing a good job, there is no reason why he cannot maintain stability in the city and continue to strive for the betterment of his city,” Chu said.
New Taipei City Government Information Department Director Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) said Chu decided not to accept a salary during his leave of absence.
“An estimated NT$570,000 due the mayor over the next three months is to be donated to the city government’s coffers,” Lin said.
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
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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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