The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday announced it is to hold an evening campaign event in Chiayi City today to bring together its mayoral and commissioner candidates for four central and southern Taiwanese cities and counties ahead of the nine-in-one elections on Saturday.
The event is to take place at the Chiayi City Municipal Baseball Stadium from 6pm to 8pm, with Yunlin County commissioner candidate Chang Li-shan (張麗善), Chiayi mayoral candidate Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠), Chiayi county commissioner candidate Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁) and Tainan mayoral candidate Kao Su-po (高思博) to attend.
“These four cities and counties are all controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose governance has only resulted in an exodus of talent and an increased unemployment rate among young people,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Taipei Times
Frozen cross-strait relations in the past two-and-a-half years has taken a toll on the local tourism industry in the region, making life miserable for hotel and restaurant proprietors, Hung said.
That is why, in the week before the elections, the KMT is to focus on flipping DPP-governed administrative regions by alerting voters to how their lives have suffered due to the ruling party’s ill-devised policies, he said.
Tainan, Chiayi and Yunlin counties have been controlled by the DPP since 1997, 2001 and 2005 respectively. Chiayi City has mostly been governed by independent politicians, with Chiayi Mayor Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) in 2014 being the first DPP member to be elected to the post.
Hung said the highlight of the event would be a teleconference with two popular KMT candidates, New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜), who was born in Chiayi County, and Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), whose wife is from Yunlin.
The event would also feature former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who are to join the four candidates to knock down a large, green ice cube to symbolize the party’s determination to put an end to the “frozen economy” under the DPP administration, Hung said.
The event is expected to attract at least 10,000 supporters and will be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook and by China Television Co (CTV), he said.
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