DPP candidates get second go at voters

The DPP's Central Executive Com-mittee yesterday agreed to ask several of its primary candidates to represent the party again to run in the year-end legislative elections.

They included Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南) to run in the Kinmen County constituency, Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) in the Pingtung County constituency and Payen Talu (巴燕達魯) as an Aboriginal legislator for the district category of mountain areas.

Chen is currently a DPP legislator, but failed to win his candidacy as the party's legislator-at-large in its April primary elections. The race in Kinmen County, however, will be a tough one for Chen, as it has long been a KMT-dominated constituency.

Chiu, who also lost in the party's primary election while running for legislator in the southern district of Taipei City, is currently a member of the party's Central Standing Committee. She, however, would enjoy the local support from her birthplace of Pingtung, where her father Chiu Mau-nan (邱茂男) served as a former member of the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council.

Payen Talu is currently a DPP legislator, but also failed to win his candidacy in the April election.

The party's legislative candidate in Taichung County, Kuo Chun-min (郭俊銘), who was former director of the DPP's department of organizational development, yesterday had his candidacy suspended for a violation of the Public Officials Election and Recall Law in 1995.

Kuo was convicted, given a three-month sentence last February and suspended for two years, following a libel lawsuit brought by his KMT rival Yang Wen-hsin (楊文欣) when both ran in the Taichung County councilors' election.

DPP Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Yang-min (許陽明) said yesterday that some of the Central Executive Committee members considered the party's so-called "black gold exclusion clauses" (排黑條款) to be "too strict" on candidates.

"Therefore, they propose to modify the regulations [to allow Kuo's participation in the election] in the party's upcoming National Congress on Sept. 29," Hsu said at a press conference after the committee met yesterday afternoon, adding that "it is very likely to be approved by the National Congress."

The party also agreed to ask former Taiwan Independence Party legislator Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) to run for the DPP seat in the Penghu County commissioner's election.