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Is the DPP's primary a blunt-edged instrument?

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is in the process of selecting its legislative candidates via a party primary. Legislative candidates in some districts were able to make dramatic gains during the telephone poll phase, which counts for 70 percent of each hopeful's final "score," prompting the party's Bribery Investigation Subcommittee to investigate.

This turn of events begs the question: Does the DPP's primary system help the party to identify its most competent legislative candidates?

The party's candidates for legislator-at-large seats have also not yet been finalized. DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun will only decide on the four candidates that it is within his power to nominate in the next two months. Recent media reports have mentioned Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as likely candidates.

The DPP's regulations for nomination of candidates for public offices from the 1990s included a section that stated quite clearly that every third nominee on the list should be an academic "expert" or a member of a disadvantaged group. This demonstrated the respect the DPP had for outside expertise, as well as their efforts to give a voice to the disadvantaged.

At this point, the DPP's primary has produced a legislator-at-large list that basically reflects the party's internal power struggle. Yu should use the maneuvering room given to him by the system to help redeem the party.

Chen Yi-shen is an associate researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of Modern History.

Translated by Jason Cox
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