The Tainan County commissioner race would be an easy victory for the DPP were it not for the fact that influential incumbent Mark Chen (陳唐山), has long felt resentment for the party's candidate, Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), observers say.
"Chen will have a decisive influence on the race's outcome," said the county's former deputy commissioner, Lin Wen-ding (
Lin said opinion polls show that around 40 percent of eligible voters in the county have not yet decided how they will vote "and 20 percent of them are likely to vote for the candidate whom the commissioner supports.
"Any DPP candidate but Su, who Chen will never support, could easily win the race since the party has ruled the county for eight years and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) secured 53 percent of the county's votes in the last presidential election," Lin said.
Lin added he was not optimistic about the "presidential card" that he says Su is playing.
"Support for the president has not turned into a bonus for Su," he said.
The DPP regards the Tainan County contest as crucial to safeguarding the president's standing.
Su's campaign manager Yan Chwen-tzo (顏純左) said that county residents respect politicians who look after the county's interests or hail from the county itself. "As a native of the county, President Chen is without doubt the best possible campaigner for Su and will certainly bring in votes," Yan said.
Yan called for a united front by DPP supporters and urged Commissioner Chen to put aside his personal resentment of Su in order to fight the forces Yan said are trying to split the party.
Reiterating that Chen would never campaign for Su, Lin said that the best strategy for Su to employ would be to counter Chen's open support for the two other candidates -- Wei and the KMT's Wu Ching-chi (
Yan said that if Mark Chen supports Wei, the independent candidate's former colleagues in the DPP could come out in Wei's support.
Frustrated with media speculation, Chen's legislative campaign manager Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) responded by saying that "as a DPP member, Chen will certainly support the DPP candidate."
Moreover, the president on Sunday succeeded in persuading Chen's top advisor in previous campaigns, Wu Nan-ho (
The infighting between Su and Chen is to seen to be to Wu's advantage and could cost Su the election.
"Wu and Su are the two major competitors in the race," said John Shen (沈榮峰), the executive director of the KMT's Tainan chapter. Shen said that the KMT would not ignore Wei's campaign although he is currently a distant third.
Shen added that unlike previous KMT candidates, Wu was capable of attracting voters from all factions, saying, that he "has never been involved in local politics" and had no enemies.
People First Party Chairman James Soong (
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS