With local government elections just one week away, political parties begin making their closing appeals to voters at major rallies in western Taiwan on Saturday night, hoping to bump up their support.
The local government elections scheduled for Nov. 26 will see voters in Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties cast ballots for their respective city mayors or county magistrates, city or county councilmen, and other local officials.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is hoping to achieve better results than in the 2018 elections, in which it secured only six mayoral and county magistrate seats while losing seven others to the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT).
The KMT, meanwhile, is aiming to add more cities and counties to the 14 it already controls, with the upstart Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) stepping up its campaigning for two of the mayoral candidates it has backed.
At a major gathering in Taichung on Saturday evening, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who concurrently serves as DPP chairwoman, urged supporters to use their votes to unseat incumbent KMT Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and defeat the KMT’s candidate in Nantou County, Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華).
She criticized Lu for having failed to deliver her promise to solve the problem of air pollution in Taichung over the past four years, though the area’s biggest polluter, the coal-fired Taichung Power Plant is under the control of state-run utility Taiwan Power Co.
She said the DPP’s nominee, Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) would bring the development projects and social welfare measures the city urgently needed.
Tsai also called on voters to support former DPP Legislator Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), who is running in Nantou, while saying that KMT-led governments in the county had stalled its development for 17 years.
Tsai charged that Hsu had not proposed any major initiatives and that Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿), who headed the county from 2005 to 2012, had recently received sentences totaling more than 400 years in jail on dozens of corruption charges.
The KMT, meanwhile, had a major gathering in Taoyuan to rally support for its candidates in Taoyuan, Taipei, Hsinchu, and Keelung.
During his remarks, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) took aim at the DPP government, accusing it of “manipulating the media” and being “involved in a series corruption practices,” without elaborating.
Chu also criticized the DPP for fielding a “candidate who committed plagiarism” to run for Taoyuan mayor, referring to former Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), who has since withdrawn from the race and been replaced by Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬).
He went on to praise the KMT’s candidate in Taoyuan, former Premier Simon Chang (張善政), as having a solid academic background and shown himself to be very capable, saying he would be the best mayor for Taoyuan.
Meanwhile, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) rode a motorcade through Hsinchu City earlier Saturday to stump for the party’s mayoral candidate Kao Hung-an (高虹安).
Ko touted Hsinchu as the city that has the highest income level and the most educated and youngest population, and he appealed to people to vote for Kao and reject the “slanders” directed at her.
Kao, a legislator since 2020, has been at the center of incessant allegations during her campaign, including overstating the salaries of her legislative aides and pocketing the excess for her personal use, a case being investigated by Taipei prosecutors.
The TPP held a rally in Hsinchu at night to drum up support for Kao and 11 other candidates running for city councilor.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel