New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi’s (侯友宜) lack of flexibility and aggressiveness in speaking was one of the reasons the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost in the presidential election, his running mate, Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), said yesterday.
Jaw returned to hosting political shows on Broadcasting Corp of China and TVBS after their loss in Saturday’s election.
“Our poll results showed that we had been trailing by about 3 percent, but the final result showed we had lost by about 6 percent,” Jaw said on his talk show TVBS Situation Room. “Instead of urging supporters to engage in strategic voting, the KMT asked them to concentrate their votes, which clearly failed to lead to desirable outcomes.”
Photo courtesy of Jaw Shaw-kong
Jaw credited the success of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the presidential election to its use of the Internet.
“Through its intensive online campaign, the TPP continued to build momentum, telling people that their polls showed that their approval rating was ranked either No.1 or No. 2. Many people would have voted for us if they had not been convinced that TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had a better chance to succeed than Hou,” he said.
Meanwhile, KMT polls showed that the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) approval ratings rose during the 10 days leading up to the elections, Jaw said.
“As the ruling party, the DPP has many resources at its disposal. It can use the justice system to interrogate borough wardens,” he said.
Jaw attributed Hou’s steadiness and sense of justice to his law enforcement background, but such characteristics could also be a disadvantage when it comes to elections, he said.
“Rarely do you see police officers and police chiefs who are quick and agile in speaking. However, I must say that Hou was doing much better than others because of his experiences as New Taipei City mayor,” Jaw said.
As a challenger in the presidential election, Hou must not give his opponents a break and should have been ready to launch surprise attacks every day.
“You tend to overthink and become conservative once you become a local government official. Hou tends to believe in what he heard from experts and think tanks. However, running for president is different from giving an academic presentation,” he said.
Jaw also wrote on Facebook that the KMT and TPP should work together in the legislature to keep the DPP in check.
In Saturday’s legislative elections, the DPP won 51 seats in the 113-seat legislature, the KMT garnered 52 and the TPP eight. Another two seats were won by independents aligned with the KMT.
“The KMT did not garner 50 percent of the seats, and it cannot pass any bill or budget plans even if it could muster 54 votes at the legislature. There would be 62 votes if all opposition lawmakers work together, and it would be a force that the DPP must reckon with,” he wrote.
The election of the legislative speaker on Feb. 1 could be the first chance for the KMT and TPP to work together, Jaw said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS