The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) finalized its nominations for legislators in the northern Taipei constituency with the conclusion of a public opinion poll yesterday.
The competitive area saw nine contestants battle for five nomination slots. The nominations were decided with party member votes counting for 30 percentof the decision and public opinion polls counting for 70 percent.
The five candidates who will be nominated are Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Lin Chung-mo (林重謨), Taipei City Councilor Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇), former Taipei City Councilor Kao Chien-chih (高建智) and former director of the DPP communications department, Phoenix Cheng (鄭運鵬).
The northern Taipei constituency consists of six districts -- Shihlin, Peitou, Sungshan, Hsinyi, Neihu and Nankang.
Among the five, Hsiao received the highest score in the opinion poll, with a support rate of 30.27 percent, followed by Cheng with 14.79 percent, Lin 14.11 percent, Hsu 11.14 percent and Kao 9.81 percent.
The competition for the nominations was intense, and was marked by fighting over factional endoresments
Cheng, who used to be a protege of Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) -- the leader of the Welfare State Alliance (福利國系) -- failed to win Hsieh's support in the primary. Hsieh chose to support the other two members of the faction: Hsu and Kao.
Without the backing of the faction, Cheng scored poorly in the party member vote.
But he did well in the public opinion poll and this secured his nomination.
He also won support from Justice Alliance Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
The New Tide Faction also suffered a setback in the northern Taipei constituency as Taipei City Legislator Lee Chien-chang (李建昌) was crowded out from the five safest nomination slots, finishing at No. 6.
The northern Taipei constituency will elect 10 legislators, and pan-blue competition is fierce, as many candidates in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party have signed up for their parties' primaries as well.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
RSS