While the New Taipei City mayoral seat will be a key indicator of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) performance in the local elections at the end of this year, there is no possibility of Premier William Lai (賴清德) running in the elections, DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said yesterday.
With the DPP expected to secure re-election in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan and Taoyuan, and working to prevent the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from seizing Taipei, New Taipei City would be a major battleground between the two parties in the Nov. 24 election, Tuan said during a radio interview.
While the DPP might lose some cities to the KMT, a possible win in New Taipei City would be interpreted as a landslide victory for the DPP if the KMT fails to secure any of the six special municipalities, Tuan said.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
“New Taipei City is of important strategic value. The New Taipei City mayoral seat will be the key focus and indicator of the mayoral elections,” he said.
The KMT, which holds New Taipei City, could easily win the election if the DPP nominates an unpopular candidate, so the DPP will field the most worthy candidate in the city, Tuan said.
DPP legislators Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) and Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), as well as Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), who have announced their candidacy for the DPP nomination for New Taipei City, each has a support rating of less than 20 percent in opinion polls, lagging potential KMT rivals.
Asked if former premiers Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) or Yu Shyi-kun, each of whom has a more than 40 percent support rating, would be named for the mayoral election, Tuan said he did not know if the DPP would nominate them.
However, “it is out of the question” that Lai would run for New Taipei City mayor, Tuan added.
Had Lai accepted the positions of Presidential Office secretary-general or vice premier, chances were that he would run for mayor, but his assuming the premiership ruled out the possibility of Lai running for a mayoral seat, Tuan said.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), daughter of Su Tseng-chang, said that her father would not run for New Taipei City mayor, denying media reports that the DPP was ready to nominate him.
Her father would continue to support Wu’s bid, and Wu remains the leading DPP candidate for the New Taipei City race, she said
Su Tseng-chang was county commissioner for then-Taipei County from 1997 to 2004. The county became New Taipei City in 2010.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
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
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
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