Former premier Yu Shyi-kun, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman, announced yesterday that he will enter the race for mayor of New Taipei City (新北市), the nation’s largest municipality by population.
“If the party supports me, I am willing to fight the battle in its name,” Yu said in an informal meeting with the media in Taipei to announce his bid.
Asked whether he was too old at 65 to run for the job, Yu said he has climbed 24 mountains around Taiwan over the past five years.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
“You can see I am physically fit enough,” he said.
Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) is also 65 and former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was 73 when he ran for the presidency in 1996, Yu said.
Yu is the second DPP politician, following former legislator Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), to announce a bid for the New Taipei race. The two will likely face more rivals from within the party.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), head of the DPP’s New Taipei headquarters, said he has been thinking about whether to join the race.
Meanwhile, commenting on Yu’s bid, New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he welcomes distinguished people who care about the city to run for mayor.
Asked if he will seek a second term, Chu did not respond.
There have been media reports saying that Chu, 52, who previously served as vice premier, wants to run for the post of Taipei mayor, or the presidency. Chu is considered a star of his generation in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The seven-in-one municipal elections are scheduled for December next year.
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
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