The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favor of scrapping party primaries and letting public polls determine election candidates, despite opposition from delegates led by former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).
Capping off almost a month of controversy over election nomination procedures, the DPP congress voted to finalize the changes proposed by senior party officials, who said it was necessary to stem factional disputes.
About a dozen demonstrators staged a sit-in protest at the entrance to the meeting, while DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who had proposed revising the party charter, was heckled by several delegates who called the move “undemocratic.”
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The revisions, approved by 227 of 311 party delegates at the meeting, mean future nominees for president, legislators, mayors, county commissioners and special municipality councilors will be selected through a public vote by telephone.
The revisions will replace the current system, which relies on a mix of party primaries (30 percent) and public polls (70 percent) to select nominees.
Delegates also agreed that legislators-at-large, elected based on the share of the party’s proportional vote, would be chosen by a task force led by the DPP chairperson and approved by two-thirds of the party’s Central Executive Committee.
The changes will be implemented in time for the DPP to select by March its candidate for next year’s presidential election, as well as contenders for the year-end legislative elections.
While the results did not come as a surprise in DPP circles, as it had attracted the backing of prominent party leaders prior to the vote, critics called the changes a “power grab” and a step in the wrong direction.
Highlighting the factional divides within the party, Lu and members of the “Gong Ma” (elders) faction, including DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), had launched a spirited debate during the congress on the merits of keeping the current system.
“Polls are not an effective gauge of the administrative experience of a nominee, or of their character. All it reveals is who has the highest media exposure,” Lu said.
She warned that DPP members, unhappy with paying party dues without having their opinions counted, would leave the party in droves.
The entire debate centered on whether the party was willing to trust its own members, she said.
“The DPP needs its members, but it doesn’t want their opinions, denying them a chance to vote,” Lu said. “Our foundation will begin to crumble.”
The DPP had called a provisional session of the congress to vote on the revisions, in a sign of commitment from party officials to settle problems that have long plagued the nomination process. Regulations have already been revised 18 times in the past 21 years.
The changes are seen to be targeted especially at proxy members who are signed up by election contenders to influence party primaries. In an attempt to curb the practice, the DPP last year ruled that party dues would have to be paid personally at DPP offices.
Senior party officials, including Tsai and DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), who led a task force that proposed the revisions, have said that the changes will not have an effect on which candidate is chosen.
It will, however, cool party tempers during the nomination process, they said.
“History shows, especially in elections where only one person is chosen, that the results between a party member vote and a public telephone survey are largely the same,” Tsai said.
Advocates of the proposal also said that party members would still have ample opportunities to make their own opinions known to candidates through a series of nationwide debates that will take place as part of the nominations.
Fight
The heated debate on the issue led to a minor scuffle as a party supporter, unhappy with Tsai’s position on the issue, grabbed the microphone from her as she was addressing the opening of the congress.
“Why can’t party members have a vote,” yelled the man, who told Tsai she should refund him the NT$10,000 he paid for lifelong party membership, before being escorted out by security.
Drop it
Protesters outside also demanded that the DPP drop the proposal as a sign of respect to party members, especially those that have been in the party since its founding in 1986.
Despite the backlash, many of the 160 delegates that signed a -petition by Lu opposing the revisions ended up voting for the proposal, a sign of the former vice president’s waning influence in the party.
Lu said it was because many of the delegates were “pressured” as senior party officials looked on.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the main reason the revisions had attracted such widespread debate was because of the general consensus that the party required greater unity to avoid future election losses.
“Regardless of which method we ended up choosing, we all have the same target and the same goals — and that is unity is the key for the future of this party,” he said during the congress. “It will also be the key to ensuring that these candidates win in future elections.”
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