The first period of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) primary elections before nominating candidates to run for the year-end legislative elections ended yesterday, with over 126 members vying for the 89 available seats -- making this the most exciting election competition in the party's history.
"Our goal is to win 100 seats, including 89 elected from all 22 constituencies, at least nine legislators-at-large seats and two Aboriginal seats," said DPP Secretary General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄).
According to the DPP's plan, the pan-green alliance will become a stable majority in the Legislative Yuan after the December elections, if the party gets over 100 seats and its ally -- the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) -- increases its seats from 12 to 20 or more.
To organize the majority alliance, the pan-green alliance needs to win at least 113 legislator seats out of the total of 225. Seeing that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) increased his support from 39 percent in the 2000 presidential election to 50 percent this year, the DPP is confident that it could promote more of its young elite to run in the legislative elections.
The keenest competition is in the two constituencies in Taipei, where 17 candidates are competing for 10 nominations.
"Almost all the party's famous political stars gathered in the capital, not to mention that our opponents from other political parties are also all top guys," said Legislator Tuan Yi-kan (段宜康), an incumbent elected from Taipei's southern constituency.
The other DPP young elite in these constituencies include Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) -- elected from overseas Taiwanese and former head of the DPP's international affairs department, and Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) -- aide of Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and former head of the DPP's culture and information department.
Some senior Taipei councilors, who have been invited to join the Cabinet or decided to run for the legislator-at-large seats also registered in the legislative primary elections.
Because Chen won reelction, a lot of senior DPP legislators are slated to join the government and leave opportunities for the young elite.
"I was told by the president this afternoon during a phone call that I will be invited by Premier Yu Shyi-kun to serve as Cabinet member, charged with diplomatic or national defense affairs," Parrish Chang (張旭成) said yesterday afternoon.
Chang, who has been repeatedly mentioned by the media as a possible choice for minister of foreign affairs, representative to the US or head of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, originally plan-ned to register as candidate in the Chiayi constituency.
Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟), who was elected in Taipei County's first constituency, withdrew from the primary elections, saying that he is willing to serve as vice chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs.
Three senior DPP lawmakers, Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉), Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Chiu Tai-shan (邱太三), have promised to join the Executive Yuan. Lo will be the new chairman of the Council for Hakka Affairs.
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
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The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final