The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to organize a million-people rally in the last week before Jan. 13’s presidential and legislative elections to bolster support for the party’s candidates, a party source said yesterday.
The theme and format of the rally are to be decided and announced as early as next week, they added.
In addition, the party plans to hold 20 large-scale campaign stump events nationwide in the final two weeks before the election, with the aim that each would attract a crowd of 10,000, said an unnamed source in the campaign team for the DPP’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德).
Photo: CNA
The heated phase of the election season would soon arrive and the presidential candidates are expected to stump for the party’s candidates, with support from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), they said.
The DPP’s objective is to keep the Presidential Office and its legislative majority, they said, adding the party is planning multiple campaign events in battleground counties and special municipalities, including New Taipei City.
The Lai campaign views young people and independent voters as key to winning the election, they added.
According to the source, Lai enjoys decent support among young voters but there is potential for improvement in that demographic, while the campaign’s social media game did not take off until the relatively late months of April and May.
DPP vice-presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) politics-and-cat-themed Youtube channel Warrior Cat Bi-khim has been a significant boost for the Lai campaign’s presence on the Internet, they said.
Meanwhile, Lai and his running mate Hsiao are expected today to open their national campaign headquarters in Taipei.
The Taipei Police Department yesterday issued a traffic control notice for the event that would take place on Beiping E Road and Hangzhou N Road.
The affected roads would be closed from 8am to midnight, it said.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
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
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
COMMUNITY SPIRIT: As authorities were busy with post-typhoon cleanups elsewhere, residents cleaned fallen leaves and cut small fallen trees blocking the hiking trails All hiking trails damaged by Typhoon Kong-rey have been repaired and has reopened for people who want a refreshing hike in Taipei during the Lunar New Year holiday, a city official said. The Taipei Basin is known for its easily accessible hiking trails. It has more than 130 trails combined into the 92km-long Taipei Grand Trail, which was divided into seven major routes when it was launched by the Taipei City Government in 2018. Last year, a part of the sixth route of the Grand Trail collapsed due to Typhoon Kong-rey, which hit Taiwan in October. The damaged section belongs to one