Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory against five competitors in the party’s primary opinion polls for Tainan for the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections.
The DPP announced the combined results of three opinion polls conducted by telephone on Wednesday, which showed Huang crushing his rivals, DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), as well as former Tainan deputy mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左) and former DPP legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅).
Huang received support from 41.58 percent of respondents, easily outrunning Chen’s 28.17 percent, followed by Yen’s 6.72 percent, Wang’s 5.13 percent, Lee’s 2.11 percent and Yeh’s 0.76 percent.
Photo: Wan Yu-chen, Taipei Times
Huang thanked supporters while calling for party unity given the rhetoric-laden mudslinging competition that developed between candidates.
“I feel surprise and the weight of responsibility,” Huang said. “My original principle remains unchanged. It is a competition between party members, not infighting.”
He said he would seek support from his rivals after the DPP approves the nomination and urged other candidates to look past their feuds and pledge their support to him to secure the city for the party.
During the campaign, candidates hurled accusations against each other on an almost daily basis, forcing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who doubles as the party’s chairperson, to announce a prohibition on slander and mudslinging.
Some candidates were criticized for aligning with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians with a history of corruption or involvement with organized crime, while others were accused of drawing funds from China.
Also thanking her supporters, Chen said that she was a major target of slander during the competition, but her reputation survived unscathed.
However, her decision to refrain from criticizing her competitors might have been wrong, Chen said.
Asked whether she would help Huang campaign for mayor, Chen said she would not rule out the possibility, but Huang would first need to bridge the rift between the candidates.
Chen would not withdraw a lawsuit she filed against Huang’s campaign office director for implicating her in a business fraud case, she said.
Yen and Wang congratulated Huang and called for party solidarity ahead of the elections.
Media reports of Huang’s polling victory came out before the DPP officially announced the results, sparking speculation that the party leaked the information.
The DPP denied the allegations, saying the selection process had been fair.
The DPP is scheduled to officially nominate Huang as the party’s Tainan mayoral candidate, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) as its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate and former deputy minister of agriculture Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁) as Chiayi County commissioner candidate on Wednesday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS