President 
Lai Ching-te, as Democratic Progressive Party chair, took its mobile Central Standing Committee meeting to Nantou County's Caotun Township on Wednesday to rally support for magistrate candidate Wen Shih-cheng. Lai called Nantou a difficult county for the DPP but said the party had not given up, and that Wen and other young candidates were leading a "love-hometown movement" to transform it. He praised Wen's elder-welfare pledges as the best in the country, Liberty Times reported.
How difficult is Nantou for the DPP? Lai, in remarks carried by CNA, said the county magistrate and the district legislators all belong to the Kuomintang, which holds 30 of the county council's 37 seats to the DPP's seven. Winning or losing was one matter, he said, and ambitions for Nantou's development another. Former legislator Tsai Pei-hui said at the meeting that in Nantou and other agricultural counties "their organisation cannot be ignored", a large network in which public-works contracting plays a key part, and that the DPP must rebuild organisation its own way, reaching groups including sisters' associations, young people and new immigrants. She said fewer than 100 days remained in the campaign.
What is Wen promising? Wen, a doctor, set out pledges on elder care, bringing young people home, transport and waste, saying Nantou's population had fallen from more than 500,000 to just over 460,000 as it aged and medical resources fell short, CNA reported. He proposed denture subsidies, which Lai said would pay up to NT$80,000 for residents aged 50 and over with missing teeth, plus shingles vaccine subsidies and mobile medical vans. Wen also pledged a county youth development bureau as a single window for startup loans, subsidies for setting up a home and childcare, combined birth subsidies raised from NT$100,000 to NT$120,000, and a bid to extend the Taichung MRT to Caotun, Nantou City and Zhushan.
What about the incinerator? Wen opposed the county government's contested plan for an incinerator in Mingjian Township, saying the county produces about 259 tonnes of rubbish a day. He proposed cutting 75 tonnes through recycling, reprocessing 50 tonnes of food waste, handling 75 tonnes by optimising existing incineration and treating the remaining 59 tonnes with mobile solid recovered fuel units, saying there was no need to build a plant at the cost of the tea industry and the environment.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
