The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has asked former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to serve as its vice chairman to help unify opposition supporters ahead of January’s elections, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday.
On Monday, the former KMT presidential candidate posted on Facebook a photograph of himself with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), along with a call for unity among the opposition candidates.
Asked about the social media post ahead of the KMT’s Double Ten National Day flag-raising ceremony at its headquarters in Taipei, Chu said that the party had asked Han to take up the vice chairmanship.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The KMT hopes that that Han can work with Ko, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), an independent candidate, and other “important people,” he said, adding that he was to meet with Han later yesterday.
Regardless of whether Han accepts the position, the party would respect his choice, Chu said.
Han’s office declined to comment on the position or the meeting.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, told reporters that he and Han had spoken recently.
Asked whether Han would take up the vice chairmanship, Hou said that Han would never ask for the position, but would “work together to win the public’s trust for the sake of the Republic of China’s continuation.”
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Chairman Wang Sing-huan (王興煥) said that Han had “already been rejected by the voters.”
“He was not only recalled, but also dramatically lost the presidential election” in 2020, Wang said.
While the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, which seeks Taiwanese independence, would prefer that the KMT disappeared, Wang said he would also be “deeply gratified” to see radical unificationists take it over.
Asked about Han’s Facebook post at the main National Day flag-raising ceremony in fromt of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Gou said he knows that unity is the opposition’s only formula to winning back the Presidential Office.
“A new hope will soon see the light of day,” he added.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
RSS