There''s just five months to go before the year-end local elections. On Wednesday, the DPP finalized its candidates for three key mayoral races. DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying will run for mayor of Keelung, and Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Chih-chien will run for mayor of Taoyuan. Lin''s current deputy, Shen Hui-hung will stay in Hsinchu and run for the city''s mayor.
The DPP’s Central Executive Committee has approved the nominations of three mayoral candidates: Lawmaker Tsai Shih-ying for Keelung, Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Chih-chien for Taoyuan, and Lin’s deputy Shen Hui-hung for Hsinchu City. Lin, who’s contracted COVID, attended the committee’s Wednesday meeting via teleconference. President Tsai Ing-wen presided in her capacity as party chairwoman.

Tsai Ing-wen
President
We have Legislator Tsai Shih-ying, as well as Lin Hui-hung – Deputy Mayor Shen Hui-hung. She’s been a superb deputy for Lin Chih-chien. The two of them are five-staff – five-staff – no, five-star local officials.

The president caught her own slips of the tongue before pressing ahead to her vision for the election.

Tsai Ing-wen
President
Hsinchu has been making progress. We will not backtrack on that progress – we can’t afford to backtrack. We’ve built a good name in local governance, restoring pride to local residents, and we must continue that work. Now is the time for us to draw up a roadmap for the next eight years.

Tsai urged the candidates to advance the DPP’s reputation in local governance.

Lin Chih-chien
Taoyuan mayoral candidate (DPP)
I want to give a special thanks to lawmakers and former lawmakers including Cheng Yun-peng, Chen Bo-ching, David Huang, and Peng?Shao-chin. I will prepare to go to Taoyuan as soon as I can to consult with you. Only by standing united can we win this election. The year-end election in Taoyuan is not a battle between blue and green. Rather, it’s a fight to keep Taoyuan on the path of progress.

Shen Hui-hung
Hsinchu City mayoral candidate
Our administrative team has created a “Hsinchu experience” that must not be interrupted. I am the candidate most familiar with and most suited to the job, the most professional candidate for the mayoral post.

Tsai Shih-ying
Keelung mayoral candidate
Keelung can’t go back to what it was. The newly transformed Keelung must not bring back the politicians of the past. The KMT once installed a barely passable mayor in Keelung, and now it’s nominated a candidate who was rejected and put on notice as a lawmaker eight years ago. This shows that the KMT is still living in the past. It is unable to meet the expectations of Keelung’s people.

The candidates said they were ready to fight hard to hold onto their constituencies for the DPP.