Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Twu Shiing-
jer (涂醒哲) has won the party’s primary for Chiayi mayor, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced yesterday in Chiayi City.
Twu finished with the best result in a simulated poll, beating Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Chen Yi-chen (陳以真) 39.8 percent to 29.7 percent. He is to be officially named the DPP candidate after approval by the party’s Central Executive Committee.
Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Huang Lu-hui (黃露慧), director of the DPP’s Chiayi City Chapter, finished second with a slight margin over Chen at 32.6 percent to 31.9 percent, while Tseng Chin-yuan (曾錦源) lagged behind the KMT candidate by 25 percentage points.
Twu said he was happy with the victory and hoped that he would not let his supporters down in the November election.
With Huang and Tseng pledging to fully support Twu’s campaign, Su said Chiayi City, a stronghold of democracy, would be a must-win constituency in the seven-in-one elections.
A former health minister under the DPP administration, Twu ran in Chiayi mayoral election in 2009 but lost to incumbent Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠).
Twu could have a slight advantage in the three-way election because of a potential split in the KMT. Hsiao Shu-li (蕭淑麗), the director-general of the Farmers’ Association of Chiayi City, withdrew from the KMT after failing to win the party’s nomination.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS