President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, has so far been visibly absent from campaigning for his party’s candidate in Saturday’s Greater Taichung legislative by-election.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), on the other hand, has made a number of trips to the central city to drum support for his party’s candidate, Greater Taichung Councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱).
According to Liao Wan-chien (廖萬堅), Chen’s campaign camp spokesperson, Su, from late last month to a pre-election campaign rally planned for Friday, would have made a total of 10 visits to Taichung in support of Chen’s electoral bid.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
“Su came to our major events, including a motorcade parade, visiting the voters at market places and other campaign activities. Former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other party top brass have also come to root for Chen. There has been a concentrated effort by the whole DPP team,” Liao said.
The by-election has been deemed as “the skirmish before the main battle to recall Ma,” said Tseng Chao-jung (曾朝榮), director of the DPP’s Greater Taichung branch.
“For this by-election, Ma has not dared to come, not even once. Even the KMT’s campaign team here does not want to talk about Ma [during its campaign,]” Tseng said. “So far the biggest name from the KMT [to campaign for KMT candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆)] is [Greater Taichung Mayor] Jason Hu (胡志強 ).”
Yen Kuan-hen is the son of former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who was found guilty of corruption and sentenced in November last year to three-and-half years in prison.
Yen Kuan-hen, 35, served as an assistant to his father before the latter’s conviction. The KMT last month announced that Yen Kuan-hen would run against Chen.
Sources say that within the pan-blue camp, the general opinion is that the local party in Greater Taichung is trying to distance itself from Ma as much as possible in its electoral campaign.
A number of KMT city councilor privately said during campaigning that people would heap scorn on Ma whenever the KMT was mentioned. The campaign has been difficult and if the DPP wins Ma will be held responsible, they said.
Greater Taichung City Council Speaker Lin Shih-chang (林士昌) of the KMT was reluctant to speak about Ma’s role, saying only that a number of KMT mobilizing organizations, including Hu, “have been very helpful.”
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS