President 
Lai Ching-te, who also chairs the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), announced on September 16 that he will chair the campaign headquarters of Liu Chien-kuo, the party's candidate for Yunlin County magistrate. The announcement came at a DPP Central Standing Committee meeting moved to Mailiao Township in Yunlin, where former county magistrate Su Chih-fen also joined Liu's team.
What role will Su play? Su will serve as general supervisor of Liu's campaign headquarters, CNA reported. On September 8 she had told reporters she had not yet been invited to join Liu's team, asking, "Can I ask for this myself?" Before the meeting she said Lai had held a long talk with her the previous week, with former legislator Chen Ming-wen and Liu present, and told her Yunlin had to be won. His words had moved her, she said, so she felt duty-bound to join.
What did the president say about the race? Shifts in international geopolitics made the year-end election important not only for Yunlin's development but for Taiwan's future, Lai said in remarks carried by CNA, calling it not the hardest election in history but one that must be won. He compared Liu, who rose from local representative and county councillor to five terms as a legislator, with Kuomintang candidate Chang Chia-chun, a legislator-at-large who he said represents the party's will and works for a particular family's interests. Yunlin, he said, belongs to everyone and not to the Chang family. Because the DPP lacks a majority in the legislature, he said, the party's candidates for magistrate, county council and township chief all needed to win.
What is Liu promising? Liu said Yunlin had fallen behind under the Kuomintang, citing incumbent magistrate Chang Li-shan's return of a NT$1.9 billion central subsidy for the Taixi green energy zone, which he said remains wasteland, CNA reported. He said the county's annual budget had risen from about NT$25 billion to nearly NT$60 billion while elder care still lagged neighbouring counties, and pledged to exempt residents aged 65 and over from National Health Insurance premiums and increase points on the senior citizen card.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
