Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has vowed to work hard on campaigning for the seven-in-one elections in November, despite his decision to not seek re-election or to run in Taoyuan’s mayoral election, politicians who met with Su yesterday quoted him as saying.
Former DPP lawmakers Lee Chen-nan (李鎮楠), Kuo Jung-tsung (郭榮宗) and Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) visited Su at the party’s headquarters a day after the DPP leader’s surprise announcement that he is dropping out of next month’s chairmanship election.
With former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) also pulling out of the chairman race, former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is expected to win the election.
Su has not made any public appearances since Monday’s announcement, but met yesterday with the trio of former legislators and some other politicians who wanted to show support to his decision.
After the visit, Liao quoted Su as saying he would keep campaigning for DPP candidates across the country with the same dedication he has put into the nomination process until his tenure as chairman ends next month.
Lee said they were unable to persuade Su to run in the Taoyuan mayoral election in November, when Taoyuan County’s status is to be upgraded to a special municipality.
Su’s aides reiterated that he has no plan to enter any of the races in November.
Meanwhile, Hsieh yesterday said that since he is no longer vying for the party chairmanship, he would like to devote his energy to a pair of initiatives.
“First, Taiwan’s democracy needs an upgrade that will bring about more deliberation, communication, discussion and assessment — like what the students and other protesters did in their three-week occupation of the legislature,” Hsieh said.
The second would be stopping the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), he added.
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
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