Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has joined the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislative primary, signing up for the primary in the party’s Keelung office yesterday.
Hau went to the party’s Keelung office with his personal ID, party membership card and a NT$100,000 check to sign up for the primary yesterday, days after a media report said he had postponed signing up due to opposition from Keelung KMT members.
KMT Keelung City Councilor Lu Mei-ling (呂美玲), one of the potential primary contenders, was also present to announce her withdrawal from the primary and call on her supporters to back Hau.
“Only when the KMT is good can Keelung and Taiwan be good as well,” said Lu, mimicking and reversing a slogan popular among young people that says: “Only when the KMT is down can Taiwan be good.”
Lu said that Hau is competent, sincere and has plenty of administrative experience.
The KMT cannot afford to be divided, so she decided to give up joining the party’s primary and support Hau after a night of deliberation, Lu added.
Lu said that she wanted to make Keelung better through her withdrawal, and that she would support Hau so he can procure more projects for the city in the legislature.
Hau said Lu met with him on Friday night, informing him of the local situation and expressing her willingness to help, which was immensely helpful for him in securing the nomination in the primary, he added.
Hau said there are two reasons he came to Keelung: For the KMT to show solidarity and win the election, and to make Keelung a better place.
Hau added that Lu agrees with him that only through solidarity can the KMT secure victory and that he would have people accept the primary result via a democratic process.
Hau said that he never exerted pressure on the local office as the party’s vice chairman, as he has insisted from the beginning that democracy, rather than top-down recruitment, is the best way to secure the party’s legislative candidate nomination.
Hau said he has noticed that many candidates for the constituency spent a lot of time cultivating support bases when he visited the district before decided on participating in the competition.
“I have to respect the effort they have made and obtain the nomination through the primary,” he said.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from