Former Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday announced his intention to seek the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nomination for next year’s presidential election, bringing to a close months of speculation.
In a brief statement, Su’s office said he would issue a “full statement” tomorrow evening to elaborate on his plans.
CONTESTANT NO. 3
Su, 63, is the third DPP heavyweight to come forward as a potential candidate for the election after former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who temporarily stepped down as DPP chairperson to focus on her campaign. DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) took over as acting party chairman on March 11.
The DPP will nominate its presidential candidate through five nationwide telephone polls and will announce the results in early May.
EXPERIENCE
The Pingtung-born Su has more experience running for office than Tsai, who has only run in the mayoral election for New Taipei City (新北市) in November last year. Su ran in the 2008 presidential election for vice president on the ticket of former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
The DPP candidate will most likely compete against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who with Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) defeated Hsieh and Su by a 16.9 percent margin.
Ma, 60, has indicated he would seek a second term and is not expected to face any opposition within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), of which he is also chairman.
POLL
A poll by the pan-blue TVBS network last week on next year’s presidential election put Tsai 1 percent ahead of Ma at 39 percent and 38 percent respectively, while Su and Ma were even at 40 percent each.
However, if Ma’s opponent were Lu or Hsieh, who has also hinted at a potential bid, the poll showed that Ma would easily defeat either of them.
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