Former labor minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) on Tuesday announced her intention to run in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primary to select its candidate for the Kaohsiung mayoral election scheduled for 2026, making her the most recent entrant in what is becoming a crowded race.
Hsu, who served as the southern port city’s deputy mayor between 2016 and 2018, is the fifth member of the ruling party to declare a bid for its Kaohsiung mayoral primary election, even though Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) has not yet reached the halfway point of his term.
DPP lawmakers Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺), Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆), Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) have already expressed their intentions to stand in the primary election.
Photo: Taipei Times
The DPP’s approach is different from that of the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), for which Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) is widely regarded as its most likely candidate in the 2026 election.
Ko, who garnered nearly 530,000 votes in 2022, failed to unseat Chen, who obtained 766,147 ballots.
While all the DPP candidates have emphasized the importance of unity in the race, their opinions differ on when the primary election should be held.
Following Hsu Ming-chun’s declaration, Hsu Chih-chieh urged the DPP to hold the primary six months earlier than scheduled to prevent the party’s supporters from worrying for too long, local Chinese-language media reported.
While Lin said it was important to meet the voters’ expectations regardless of the timing, Chiu said it is still “way too early” to discuss the matter given how much time remains in Chen’s term, local media reported.
Kaohsiung, the third-most-populous special municipality in Taiwan, has long been a DPP stronghold since Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was elected mayor in 1998.
Other than Yang Ming-chou (楊明州), who served for two months as acting mayor in 2020, the only non-DPP mayor to govern Kaohsiung since 1998 is Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, who won the mayoral election in 2018. However, in June 2020, Han became the first mayor in Taiwan’s history to be recalled by popular vote.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS