The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will announce this week its candidate for the Yunlin County legislative by-election as well as its candidates for the year-end mayoral and commissioner elections, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), head of the party's nominating team, said yesterday.
Following Su's remarks, DPP Yunlin County Councilor Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) suspended his campaign activities and called on fellow party member, former Yunlin County deputy commissioner Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), to also halt his campaign and wait for party headquarters to make a final decision on who should represent it in the by-election.
The by-election is being held after the Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court on Tuesday annulled the election victory of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文). Chang was declared the winner of the regional legislative seat in Yunlin County in January last year, but his opponent at the time, Liu, accused him of vote-buying and filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election results.
Liu said he was glad to win the lawsuit and that he was willing to take over Chang's legislative seat.
Lee resigned as deputy commissioner shortly after the announcement of the annulment of last year's election.
Lee, who was leading a bike team around the county yesterday as part of his campaign, said the bicycle parade showed his determination to enter the race, but added that he would respect and obey the party's right to choose the candidate.
Su said yesterday the party was mulling asking DPP Legislator Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠) to enter the Chiayi county commissioner race.
Citing five recent polls conducted by the party, Su said Chang Hwa-kuan led the KMT's candidate — Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) — by 10 percent, suggesting a good chance of defeating Wong.
The party would support former Nantou County commissioner Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男) in the Nantou race, Su added.
Su said Lin, who withdrew from the DPP four years ago after losing the DPP Nantou commissioner primary to then DPP-nominee Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), could not rejoin the party for five years under DPP regulations.
As such, the DPP could only recommend him, but not nominate him as party candidate, Su said.
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
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Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in