Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) yesterday said that he would resign to prepare for next year’s Tainan mayoral election, calling on DPP lawmakers intending to contest the post to resign their seats to avoid abusing government resources for their personal campaigns.
Lee said his resignation was to ease concerns that his position might gain him an advantage in the DPP’s nomination race.
“Some rivals have expressed displeasure over my involvement as deputy secretary-general in the mayoral campaign and they have pressured President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) [who also serves as DPP chair],” Lee said.
“To protect the party and keep Tsai from being involved in things that are insignificant to the president, I have decided to resign, which shows my determination to win the party’s nomination,” Lee said.
The DPP is expected to hold a primary election in March next year to nominate candidates for next year’s mayoral and county councilor elections.
DPP legislators Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) and Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), as well as former Tainan deputy mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左), have declared their intentions to join the party’s primary for Tainan, with DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) also expected to enter the race.
An opinion poll released on Tuesday by Chinese-language online news outlet My-Formosa.com ranked Huang as the most popular candidate with an approval rating of 44.5 percent, followed by Chen at 29 percent, Wang at 28.9 percent, Yen at 25.7 percent, Yeh at 23.6 percent and Lee at 14.7 percent.
As Tainan is a DPP stronghold, the candidate who secures the party’s nomination is expected to win the mayorship, as the poll showed that New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) received an approval rating of only 18.7 percent.
“The accuracy of the poll can be debated, and whether there is any political motivation behind the poll is also open for discussion,” Lee said.
Lee, who was born in then-Tainan County and served as a legislator representing the region from 1996 to 2012, won the DPP nomination to run for county commissioner in 2009.
However, the county commissioner election was canceled after the central government merged the county with then-Tainan City to create a special municipality.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we