Taipei and Taoyuan mayoral candidates in the Nov. 26 local elections scored the highest in general for youth welfare policies, local NGOs said Wednesday.
Among the 54 mayoral and county magistrate nominees who responded to questions about their plans to improve welfare for children and teenagers, those from the two cities scored over 80 points out of 110, the groups said.
The nationwide average was 62, according to the Children’s Rights Alliance Taiwan (CRAT) and Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare (TAAYRW).
Four of the top 10 candidates came from the two cities — Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and independent Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) in Taipei and Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) of the DPP and Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) of the Taiwan People’s Party in Taoyuan.
At a press conference, TAAYRW Chairwoman Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) praised some of those candidates for putting forth innovative policies.
For instance, Chen, who was ranked No. 3 with 93.67 points, highlighted online sexual violence and media literacy, which shows his grasp of the challenges faced by young people in the digital age, Lin said.
Meanwhile, Keelung mayoral candidate Chen Wei-chung (陳薇仲) of the New Power Party (NPP) had the highest score of all candidates at 94.89 points, Lin said.
Chen Wei-chung has a comprehensive policy platform dedicated to youth welfare, including proposals to improve their working conditions and establish an office handling related issues, according to Lin.
Half of the responding candidates scored under 60, according to the NGOs, who evaluated the candidates’ youth policies based on such criteria as education, job opportunities, recreation, talent development, and political participation.
In general, candidates in Tainan and Yilan, Hualien, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Chiayi and Yunlin counties scored the lowest, said Lin, who did not name the candidates who proposed the lowest-scoring policies.
Most candidates in those counties did not offer long-term plans for youth development, instead focusing mostly on child care policies and subsidies, Lin said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel