As a party that contributed greatly to the democratization of the nation, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is facing its most difficult period since it was formed 22 years ago and the party fully recognizes that it could become irrelevant if it suffers a heavy defeat in the city and county elections scheduled for the end of this year.
The party, which has been damaged by the allegations and court cases involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) — who left office last May after eight years as president and then was charged with embezzlement, taking bribes and money laundering, influence peddling and blackmail — failed badly in the legislative elections in January last year and the presidential election last March.
“It is a life and death battle. The DPP needs to do well in the city and county elections to remain one of the nation’s two main political parties,” DPP Department of Culture and Information director Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said in a recent telephone interview.
PHOTO: CNA
Cheng added that, while the party had a bad time last year, it was not at all pessimistic about the city and county elections.
“We succeeded in gathering together large numbers of people for three rallies against the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] government — the Aug. 30 rally to protest against the government’s poor performance on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 100th day in office, the Oct. 25 rally to protest against the toxic products imported from China and to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty and the rally to lay siege to China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) when he met Ma on Nov. 6 — which showed that much of the public still supports the DPP and dislikes Ma’s China policies and his incompetence in handling the economy,” Cheng said. “Protecting our sovereignty and the economy will be the key issues for the party during the city and county elections.”
Various polls had also shown many KMT local government heads had 50 percent or higher disapproval ratings and it was a good chance for the DPP to win back those regions, he said.
The DPP holds power in six of the cities and counties that are holding elections this year — Yunlin County, Chiayi County, Tainan City and County, Kaohsiung County and Pingtung County.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said the party should be able to win another six regions at least and was hoping to win eight.
However, the party has so far failed to come up with a single candidate for the Tainan County election, as two ofits legislators, Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) and Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅), have expressed a desired to run, while Chen Shui-bian’s former Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山) has also said he will enter the race, no matter whether the party nominates him or not.
“The party needs to be patient and we will continue to negotiate on the matter,” Tsai said, while many remain concerned the different candidates may split the party’s vote in the county and lose the DPP one of its strongholds.
But not content with consolidating support in the south, the party has said that Taipei County — the nation’s largest administrative region — would be key among the city and county elections and that the party will ensure it puts forward its best candidate.
The party believes it has a good chance of winning back the seat, as Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) of the KMT has consistently had one of the worst approval ratings among local government heads.
There are calls within the party for former DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to enter the race, but he has so far remained noncommittal.
Soochow University political science professor Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said the elections are so important to the DPP that he was expecting Tsai to run in Taipei County, saying that he believed Tsai would perform well.
“Even if she failed, she would succeed in cultivating a campaign team that could be used if she was interested in running for the 2012 presidential election,” Lo said.
He said the DPP should use the elections to field candidates with ideals and wisdom, and not just field faction members or local politicians as candidates.
Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive member of the pro-localization Taiwan Thinktank and a former director of the DPP’s International Affairs Department, said the party should use the city and county elections to nurture the next generation of ‘national leaders’ who could represent the party in future national campaigns, but that so far he had seen no evidence that the party would attempt such a campaign.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,