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.
‘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