Twenty-three years since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost power in Chiayi City, Saturday's election presents what is widely regarded as the best chance the party has had for a long time to win back the city. A tough fight is in store for the Democratic Progress Party (DPP) if it wants to keep control of this traditionally anti-KMT city.
According to assessments made by both camps a week before the elections, Mayor Chen Li-jen (陳麗貞), the DPP candidate, and KMT Legislator Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠), are running neck-and-neck.
Lin Hung-chan (林宏展), a spokesman at Chen's election headquarters, told the Taipei Times yesterday that Chen was lying just 3 points behind Huang according to a recent DPP poll, while KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) regarded the DPP's evaluation as "very optimistic to say the least."
"Huang has been in the lead for quite a while and she remains a stable frontrunner as she has good grass-roots support," Cheng said.
Four years ago, as an independent candidate, Chen easily beat the other four candidates with 44.84 percent of the vote, compared to 34.71 percent for the KMT candidate, Chiang Ching-hsien (江清馦), and 12.04 percent for the DPP's Huang Cheng-nan (黃正男).
Chen's victory also marked the first time that residents of Chiayi had elected a candidate who was not part of Hsu Shih-hsien's (許世賢) family, the so-called "Hsu Band" (許家班), since Hsu, the first female mayor in Taiwan's history, was elected mayor in 1982.
In the 2001 mayoral race, Chen was deputy mayor. He succeeded Chang Po-ya's (張博雅) as mayor after Chang was called into service as part of the DPP Cabinet.
Chen then joined the DPP in 2003 and won the party's primary election this May. Her transition from "Hsu Band" member to DPP candidate has inevitably diminished the influence of the "Hsu Band" in the city over the past few years.
Chiayi is said to be the only city in the country where local politics are still dominated by independent factions rather than party factions.
Hsu's legacy remains strong though and was an obvious factor for Chang Po-ya and Chang Wen-yin (張文英), both Hsu's daughters, when they ran for and won the mayorship a total of four times.
Hsu, who served as a member of the first Chiayi City council before going on to serve four-terms as a provincial assemblywoman during the era when the former KMT government repressed those fighting for democracy, helped earn the city the title of "a sanctuary of democracy."
Despite the fact that the DPP's involvement in recent scandals has not harmed Chen's campaign, appealing to the public as a defender of the city's democratic traditions will surely gain Chen more support, Lin said.
Chiayi City candidates
* Chen Li-jen
* Democratic Progressive Party
* Year born: 1958
* Education: Masters degree in environmental medicine, Chinese Medicine University
* Positions held: Director-general of Environmental Protection Bureau of Chiayi City; Director of Department of Health of Executive Yuan; deputy mayor of Chiayi City; mayor of Chiayi City.
* Huang Ming-hui
* Chinese Nationalist Party
* Year born: 1959
* Education: Executive MBA, National Chiayi University
* Positions held: Teacher at Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls' High School; National Assembly Representative; legislator
Source: Taipei Times
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS