Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) won the party’s chairperson by-election yesterday with nearly 69 percent of the vote over former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
Voting favored Chiang in all 22 counties and cities, KMT statistics showed.
In Taipei, where Hau served as mayor from 2006 to 2014, Chiang garnered nearly 60 percent of the votes, gaining about 2,600 more than Hau.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Votes from party members overseas were expected to favor Hau, but the party’s data showed that most went to Chiang.
The by-election had a low turnout of only 35.85 percent, or 124,019 people out of 345,971 who were eligible to vote.
Chiang received 84,860 votes, or 68.8 percent of the valid ballots, while Hau received 38,483. There were 676 invalid votes.
Hau issued a statement at about 6pm — before vote-counting had been completed — acknowledging defeat and congratulating Chiang on winning the election.
Hau thanked the members who voted and the volunteers who helped with the election process.
Chiang has a significant burden to bear over the next year and we hope he lives up to his promise of change, Hau said.
Hau said he has always believed, and still does, that if the KMT is strong, it can help make Taiwan a better place.
Chiang thanked supporters for voting for him and said their choice ensured that the KMT’s handover from the previous generation to the next would be successful.
Chiang said that he would institute organizational changes in the KMT and place less emphasis on party headquarters and more on local party chapters.
This would enable the party to be more connected to local residents, he said.
He promised to upgrade, improve and digitize party affairs, saying that this would be just the beginning of sweeping changes.
“The KMT from now on will be a party that is more modern and swift to respond to demands,” Chiang said.
Chiang said that he had spoken with Hau on the telephone and hopes to work with him to introduce reforms that would improve the KMT.
The by-election was to fill the vacancy left by Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who stepped down last month after the party’s losses in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
The KMT plans to hold an inauguration ceremony for Chiang tomorrow morning.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors