The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has officially nominated Deputy Legislative speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) for Taichung mayor in local government elections scheduled for Nov. 26.
Tsai is the best candidate to improve Taichung, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is also the DPP chairperson, told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
Tsai Chi-chang has been a deputy legislative speaker since 2016, giving him the experience to govern Taichung with a broader and more comprehensive vision to help the city’s development, the president said.
Photo: CNA
He likely faces an uphill battle if incumbent Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) seeks re-election.
Although Lu has yet to announce her re-election bid, the KMT has said it is inclined to nominate incumbent mayors and county officials for the November elections.
The 53-year-old deputy legislative speaker earlier served as a legislator from 2005 to 2008, before being elected again to the post in 2012.
He said he was determined to address Taichung’s traffic congestion and air pollution, and pledged to build more quality affordable housing for young people, without elaborating on how he would achieve the goals.
The DPP also nominated Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) and former Toufen City (頭份) mayor Hsu Ting-chen (徐定禎) as candidates for magistrate races in Yunlin and Miaoli counties respectively.
It also officially nominated Legislator Chou Chun-mi (周春米), who won a Pingtung County primary early last month.
Separately, the New Power Party’s (NPP) Taichung chapter on Wednesday called for a resign-to-run law, saying that officeholders seeking election elsewhere are abusing the trust of their constituents and unfairly benefiting from public subsidies for political candidates.
The chapter said that under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a political candidate receives NT$30 for every vote they garnered after a mandated threshold.
Citing the Central Election Commission’s records, the chapter said that NT$65.56 million (US$2.22 million) of the subsidies have gone to 45 officeholders who sought election to other positions in the past three elections for city mayors, county commissioners and local councilors.
Allowing politicians already in office to run for a different position, encourages them to neglect their duties and profit from public campaign funding, it said, adding that the NPP legislative caucus has proposed a resign-to-run law to address the issue.
The NPP proposal — which is modeled after similar laws in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas — would require candidates to resign from an elected office and partially return prior campaign funding if they run for a different position, it said.
The NPP urged parties to support the legislations, and called on candidates in November’s elections to voluntarily resign from their current elected posts if they are seeking a different office.
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