Shen Boyang and Jiang Wanan declined to attend due to their busy schedules. The Youth Forum in Taipei was suspended.

Taiwan Youth Thought, the Taiwan Federation of Students and other student groups collaborated with the student self-governing organizations of the four schools of National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Taiwan Normal University, and Soochow University to jointly organize the 2026 Mayoral Candidates Youth Forum. The organizer announced today that due to the busy schedules of Taipei Mayoral Candidate Chiang Wanan of the Kuomintang and Shen Boyang, the Taipei Mayoral Candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party, both declined to attend, the Youth Forum in Taipei has decided to suspend the event.

Taiwan Youth Thought issued a statement on Facebook saying that they started preparations as early as the summer vacation and sent invitations to the two main candidates in Taipei in early September. At the same time, they successively held events in Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, and New Taipei. Many cross-party candidates attended, but there was no progress in the Taipei event. They also publicly invited the two candidates at the end of September, and continued to have close discussions with the candidates and the media.

It was only recently that the team received the news that Jiang Wanan and Shen Boyang declined to attend due to their busy schedules, so they decided to cancel this event in Taipei. They would like to express their sincere apologies to the students and young friends from the four schools who were looking forward to this event, hoping to directly communicate with the Taipei mayoral candidates on youth rights and municipal issues that young people care about, and to jointly develop the city's vision.

Youth Thought pointed out that as young people who also live in Taipei, they will not give up fighting for the rights of young people in this city, and will continue to convey the voice of youth to candidates and even the Taipei City Government, hoping to realize the vision of "youth mainstreaming" in the Youth Basic Law implemented at the beginning of this year in local governance.

They are well aware that there is still a long road to reform before the opinions of young people and students can fully enter municipal discussions. Adult citizens aged 18-20, that is, about 1/2 of university students, have not yet been given the right to vote, and the election and recall law is still being revised. Many young people studying in Beijing are eager to move their household registrations to the city where they actually live in accordance with the law. However, they are blocked by universities and landlords and cannot obtain local voting rights. The proposed amendments to the university law and leasing regulations are stuck in the procedures of the Legislative Yuan and the Political Yuan respectively.

They believe that beyond this election, these issues require politicians to show sincerity and courage to solve the problem for young people and students. They also specifically expect that before the next election in 2028, the three political parties in the government and opposition parties should work together to return the rights of young people, so that the younger generation can use their votes to make decisions for their own lives and the future of Taiwan.