Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), the DPP's chairman, yesterday said he will announce by the weekend his decision on whether to stand again for the post of party chairman when his term expires in July.
Even so, Lin appeared yesterday to be hinting that his decision would be to leave. Lin said he hoped his party colleagues would be understanding if his final decision was different from their expectations.
DPP faction leaders, including President Chen Shui-bian (
"I appreciate the party associates' concern for me and will cautiously consider their opinions," Lin told reporters yesterday. "But, whether one person is in or out of the party will not greatly influence the party [as a whole] with its 200,000 members."
Having led the DPP to victory, however, Lin has recently appeared to tire of his position.
"I am now working on framing a schedule for the re-election of the chair and will make up my mind as to whether to reapply for the position no sooner than Wednesday, the day the DPP's Central Standing Committee finalizes the schedule," Lin said.
Chen, meanwhile, visited Lin at party headquarters for a closed-door meeting between the two, which was widely seen as an attempt to persuade Lin to stay as head of the party.
However, both of them declined to comment further.
Instead, Chen told reporters he had made a promise not to involve himself in party affairs. But "everybody knows my opinion [in support of Lin]," Chen said.
Chen praised Lin by saying that "there would be no President A-bian [(
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