Sunday saw Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Vice President Annette Lu (
This is likely to create a selection headache for the DPP, but it is the kind of dilemma that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would be only too happy to have.
Realistically, only one of the four will end up satisfied, as a vice presidential slot is unlikely to appeal to those who fail to get the nod for the top job.
President Chen Shui-bian (
The DPP will be looking to avoid a situation similar to the one that beset the KMT in 2000, when James Soong (
But if the negotiations turn sour and certain candidates prove unwilling to take a back seat, then it may prove a wise move for the party to wait for the outcome of judicial investigations into the use of special funds by the four in their previous posts as county commissioners and mayors before making a final decision. Which of them, if any, are indicted could have an important bearing on his or her chances in next year's battle.
After all, in the current political climate and with "corruption" allegations hanging over the heads of the president and former Taipei mayor and KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
And there is every chance to believe that the chosen DPP candidate will be facing off against Ma, as it would be the height of folly for the KMT to select anyone else. So far, only Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
It is imperative, therefore, that the DPP nominate someone with a spotless image. This will hand the party's nominee the moral high-ground and help the party to focus the election campaign on other, more important issues.
The nation's most important electoral contest degenerating into a no-holds-barred mudslinging "battle of the indicted" benefits no one who has Taiwan's best interests at heart.
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