Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Saturday said he would run in the Taipei mayoral election next year and accused Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of overstepping his authority.
Yao said the mayor has failed to live up to the expectations of grassroots supporters during the three years he has been in office.
“The atmosphere at party headquarters is always changing, but the latest polls show that many DPP supporters feel that Mayor Ko is out of touch with the expectations that people had for his administration,” Yao said.
Ko has said he would break down the barrier between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, but ended up wandering between them, Yao said, adding that Ko’s political activities have gone beyond the concerns of a mayor.
“Taipei is not only the nation’s capital, but also the engine of its economy. Yet, in the past few years the city’s economy has shrunk and has been surpassed by New Taipei City,” Yao said, adding that the problem seems to have stemmed from a lack of cooperation between civic groups and local government departments on issues such as land rights.
The Taipei City Government’s performance calls for a new mayor, Yao said, citing the city’s failure to launch the Taipei Twin Towers project after it was marred by corruption allegations in 2014.
There is a lack of enthusiasm about the Summer Universiade that is to take place in Taipei next month, whereas Tokyo residents are already excited about the 2020 Olympics, Yao added.
Yao said he would continue promoting “green” energy, “smart” technology and other infrastructure projects after the Universiade, but added that he hopes the city would put all of its energy into the Games and return to other projects after the event is over.
Yao said the DPP would hold its national congress in September and is expected to discuss the candidates for next year’s elections as well as the party’s relationship with Ko.
The DPP would await the results of a public opinion poll before deciding whether to maintain ties with Ko, a source said.
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A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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