While Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) is yet to make his final decision on whether to enter the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primary for next year’s presidential election, Taiwan Brain Trust chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said that Lai has less support within the party than DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
When the DPP’s Central Standing Committee decided last week that it would bring the nomination process for next year’s presidential election forward, former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) criticized Tsai, saying she had made the decision so that other competitors would not have sufficient time to prepare.
Koo went on to declare his support for Lai in the presidential race, and said that the Taiwan Brain Trust would make public a poll on support for Lai at a press conference on Wednesday.
However, while results for several aspects of domestic and cross-strait politics were released, there was nothing on Lai’s support rate.
Asked about it during a separate press conference yesterday, Wu promised that the think tank would eventually publicize the poll results for Lai.
“Lai is making his final decision now, so we decided to release the poll result later, to avoid affecting his decisionmaking,” Wu told the media.
However, when further asked if the think tank decided not to publicize the poll result because Lai’s support was falling behind Tsai’s, Wu said: “It’s not possible to have a poll result with Lai winning over Tsai.”
“Tsai has long been preparing for the presidential race, but the news that Lai may also run in the election has just surfaced,” he said.
While both Koo and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) have expressed their support for Lai in the presidential race, Lai declined to comment yesterday, saying that it was not an appropriate time to discuss the issue as the nation mourns over the plane crash.
However, earlier, Lai said that he would announce his final decision on Monday during a book launch.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
NEW WORLD: Taiwan is pursuing innovative approaches to international relations through economics, trade and values-based diplomacy, the foreign minister said Taiwan would implement a “three-chain strategy” that promotes democratic values in response to US tariffs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said. Taiwan would aim to create a “global democratic value chain,” seek to capitalize on its position within the first island chain and promote a “non-red supply chain,” Lin was quoted as saying in the ministry’s written report to the Legislative Yuan submitted ahead of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting slated for today. The Ministry would also uphold a spirit of mutual beneficial collaboration, maintaining close communication and consultations with Washington to show that Taiwan-US cooperation
RSS