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.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant