Both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have set central Taiwan as the key battleground in the approaching nine-in-one elections on Nov. 29.
With that in mind, some of the DPP’s candidates in the region, including Greater Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Changhua County commissioner candidate Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) and Nantou County commissioner candidate Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), have seen their campaigns revolving around themes of regional governance and integrated construction.
In addition to attending joint campaign events, the trio have also appeared in a campaign advertisement promoting their plan to build a “common living circle” linking the three administrative regions.
Their cooperation has proven to be effective, putting further pressure on their KMT rivals, a high-ranking DPP member said, citing the candidates’ strong performances in recent opinion polls.
However, the DPP’s latest analysis shows that while Wei leads his main opponent, the KMT’s Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏), in polls, organization and coordination are the latter’s strong suit and that former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker Huang Wen-ling’s (黃文玲) running for Changhua County commissioner could impede Wei’s attempts to draw all the support he can get from the pan-green camp.
As for the Yunlin County race, the DPP’s Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) has lost his lead in opinion polls and now has nearly the same level of support as his KMT rival, Chang Li-shan (張麗善).
The same trend has also been observed in the outlying county of Penghu, where the DPP’s Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) has also lost the edge over his KMT opponent, Su Kun-hsiung (蘇崑雄), because of the latter’s effective strategic planning.
According to a source with close ties to the higher echelons of the DPP, who requested anonymity, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came up with the concept of “regional governance” in her Platform for the Coming Decade when she was vying for the presidency in 2012.
“Tsai meant for the concept to address the problems of unequal distribution of government resources as a result of the sudden upgrade of five administrative regions into special municipalities in 2010, as well as the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor,” the source said.
A DPP campaign staffer said the party headquarters proposed the regional governance concept to Lin Chia-lung, Wei and Lee Wen-chung in the latter half of this year and that the trio readily accepted the idea.
“Now that the concept has proven to be a workable strategy, the party has recommended its Yunlin County commissioner candidate Lee Chin-yung, Chiayi City mayor candidate Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) and Chiayi County commissioner candidate Helen Chang (張花冠) to follow suit,” the staff member said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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