Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said his plan to run in Taipei City on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket remains unchanged despite talks from former presidential advisor Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) asking him to reconsider.
Koo ran a half-page advertisement yesterday in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) calling on Su to drop his bid in Taipei City and instead run in Sinbei City — Taipei County’s name once it is upgraded — against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Vice-Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫).
“Taipei County residents elected him to two terms as Taipei County Commissioner. Su is best positioned to understand the problems of these people and as a politician, he has a responsibility to step up when people need him to,” Koo said in a press conference yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
Left unsaid was that Su also holds the DPP’s best chances going up against Chu, who is also riding high in opinion polls according to surveys, released in March. In the same ad, Koo also called on DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to run in Taipei City against incumbent KMT mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
However, the requests were firmly rebuffed by Su who said in a separate setting yesterday that he had decided to run in Taipei City since March 3, the date he first publicly announced his candidacy.
While Tsai did not make a public comment on the issue, she has said previously that she did not plan on taking part in the special municipality elections in November.
Despite having already selected its candidates for Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, the DPP has yet to finalize its list for Taipei and Sinbei as well as Greater Taichung. The nomination list is expected to be released Wednesday next week but party officials added the date could be pushed back if the team were unable to come to a conclusion.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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