2020 Elections: Taipei labor chief tops TPP legislator-at-large list

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) Lai Hsiang-lin (賴香伶), head of the Taipei City Department of Labor, was named Tuesday by Taiwan People's Party (TPP) as the top choice on its list of 29 legislator-at-large nominees for the January 2020 elections.

Lai, 51, was a labor and social movement activist prior to her appointment as head of Taipei's labor department in December 2014.

She was the city's first labor chief elected via i-Voting, an online system launched by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) that year to allow Taipei citizens to vote for city officials or policies.

Also on the TPP's list of 29 at-large legislator nominees are Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿), a professor of political economy at National Sun Yat-sen University; Kao Hung-an (高虹安), an aide to Hon Hai Precision Industry founder Terry Gou (郭台銘); Andy Chiu (邱臣遠), secretary general of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce; and Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), a Taipei city counselor and close aide to Mayor Ko, in that order.

Kao, who is also vice president of Hon Hai's Industrial Big Data Office, helped facilitate cooperation between Ko and Gou, according to the latter's office.

Touting Kao as a big data expert, the office said it hoped she would gain a seat in the Legislature, where she could promote technology-related bills.

A young party founded by Ko in August, the TPP did not put forth a full list of 34 legislator-at-large candidates, as he had promised, because some nominees declined for personal reasons, according to the party's spokeswoman Lin Chen-yu (林珍羽).

TPP Secretary-General Chang Jer-yang (張哲揚) said the 29 nominees for at-large seats range in age from 26 to 62 and that 15 of them are under 40.

All of the nominees are experts in various fields, including social welfare, medical care, economy, labor, culture and public health, Chang said.

In the Legislature, 73 of the 113 seats are filled by means of direct elections in the nation's constituencies, six are reserved for indigenous candidates elected by indigenous voters, and 34 are at-large seats decided on a separate ballot in which voters select their preferred political party.

A party must gain at least 5 percent of the total number of votes cast in the legislative election to qualify for at-large seats.

Taiwan's legislative and presidential elections are scheduled for Jan. 11, 2020.