For 34-year-old Chang Chia-ling (張嘉玲), a typical weekday consists of sitting down with supporters, attending press conferences and protesting in front of the Presidential Office.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) contender for city councilor in Sinbei City is one of a host of fresh faces that both the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are fostering before the year-end special municipality elections.
Chang and the dozens of other younger candidates in the December elections are part of a growing chorus of political figures that both parties have been trying to attract — and retain — to break free of the traditional political mold and engage an increasingly politically apathetic younger generation.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
“We want to give younger people who care about politics and who have ideas about how this country should be run a chance to prove themselves,” KMT officials in charge of candidate recruitment told the Taipei Times.
The KMT is mulling a policy that would give contenders aged under the age of 35 a 10 percent boost in internal party polls used in the nomination process. KMT officials said the policy would be finalized before the December elections.
The DPP is also considering a proposal backed by senior party members that would see the DPP also give a 10 percent boost to aspiring candidates making their first mark in politics.
DPP officials said that sitting politicians, including councilors and lawmakers, would not be eligible for the boost as it was aimed at bringing new faces into a party that had been accused last month of “recycling candidates.”
While officials from both parties say that interest from the younger generation has been growing, they acknowledge that few who show an interest in politics end up running.
“The problem for them is that many of the older generation they are up against have status and connections within their electoral districts. It’s hard for the young candidates to match them in terms of resources or name recognition,” a KMT official said.
Li Mei-jhen (李眉蓁), who is vying for a KMT city councilor nomination, said one problem the KMT faced was its long tradition of picking candidates with the most local connections, even for party posts, which excludes many of the younger generation.
To address the problem, former deputy head of the KMT’s youth group Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) has called for the party to increase the percentage boost even further, saying that the current proposal would not make a noticeable difference in youth participation.
DPP contender for city councilor in Kaohsiung City, Chen Cheng-wen (陳政聞), agreed, but added that methods other than opinion polls existed that could bring in fresh faces.
“Some of the more substantive measures that can help the younger generation include participation in party politics and other party posts,” the former DPP Kaohsiung branch head said.
However, this realization does not seem to have deterred some potential candidates from coming up with new and increasingly creative tactics to score media coverage to bolster their name recognition.
Former DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang’s (蔡啟芳) son, Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘), drew media attention for a rumored bid for lawmaker earlier this month after he unveiled a large billboard in Taipei complaining that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies had left him without a girlfriend.
Political candidates, especially among the younger generation, have many different styles, Chang said, but added that what is most important “is a will to work hard, to earn the voters’ trust and to work for Taiwan’s future.”
“This is what matters, regardless if you are a young candidate or an older candidate,” Chang said. “If you can do this, the 10 percent boost becomes irrelevant.”
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
RSS