Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday said that there is no doubt that KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is her election campaign manager and KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) the campaign director, after weeks of media speculation that nobody in the KMT camp was willing to take the jobs.
Following Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement that Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) is to be her campaign manager, Hung on Wednesday said that it is the candidate who runs that matters.
“If the candidate is empty [in substance], it would not change a thing, no matter who has been chosen as the campaign manager,” she said.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
When asked about her own campaign team, Hung yesterday said that the KMT has a united front that binds the party’s legislative and presidential campaigns, “so Chairman Chu and Lee are undoubtedly the campaign manager and director, and other personnel appointments will be announced later.”
Speculation was rife that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) was Hung’s first choice for campaign manager, until Wang refused the appointment publicly last month, saying that “putting me in a difficult position is tantamount to putting the legislature in a difficult position.”
Media reports have also mentioned former KMT secretary-general Liao Liou-yi (廖了以), former Examination Yuan president John Kuan (關中), Presidential Office Secretary-General Tseng Tung-chuan (曾永權) and National Policy Foundation executive general Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) as possible campaign managers, but none were confirmed.
Hung reiterated that it is “impossible” that the KMT would change its candidate now, as rumors spread yet again that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is not against replacing Hung with Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) as the KMT presidential candidate if Hung’s poll numbers remain low this month.
Hung also stressed that it is not possible for the KMT and the People First Party — the two parties that are widely seen as “pan-blue” — to cooperate, saying the latter has “already collaborated with somebody else,” indicating that the PFP is aligned with the DPP.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS