People First Party Deputy Secre-tary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) yesterday hinted that the party may compromise in the Taipei County commissioners race if the KMT makes good on its promise to support the PFP's nominee for Kaohsiung County commissioner.
In response, KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (
However, Chin, who is also the PFP's nominee for the Taipei County race, said the KMT should do something to show its sincerity about cooperating with his party in the year-end elections, because no PFP candidate has won the KMT's endorsement so far.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
After the KMT has showed its goodwill, Chin said, he will discuss with his supporters as to whether he should "advance or retreat" in his Taipei County bid.
"If the KMT shows its sincerity in sorting out internal differences and supporting the PFP's Chung Shao-ho (
The two parties have been negotiating for almost five months on cooperating in the commissioner elections of six counties:Taipei, Taoyuan, Taitung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Penghu.
According to an agreement between the parties, the KMT will support the PFP's candidates for commissioner of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taitung Counties, where the PFP enjoys broad public support. The PFP is to reciprocate in the other three counties.
So far, cooperation plans appear to have been unsuccessful.
In Taitung County, the KMT approved a bid in July by Wu Chun-li (吳俊立), speaker of the Taitung County Council, to vie for the commissioner's job despite the fact that the PFP had nominated Legislator Hsu Ching-yuan (徐慶元).
KMT Legislator Wu Kuang-hsun (
The PFP nominated Chin in Taipei County, while the KMT nominated Legislator Lin Jih-jia (
Obviously unhappy with the KMT's decisions, Chin yesterday asked the party to take action to support the PFP's candidates, in order to make the cooperation "meaningful."
"Cooperation must be conducted on an equal footing, with mutual respect and reciprocity," Chin said.
He made the remarks after a meeting with New Party co-founder and former minister of finance Wang Chien-shien, who last week announced his decision to vie for the opposition alliance's joint nomination for the Taipei County race.
Chin and Wang proposed that leaders of the three parties sit down immediately to negotiate on "fair and reasonable" measures, including holding opinion polls, to select one candidate for the alliance, so that together they could beat the DPP's Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
They said such efforts proved successful in Taipei County, they should then be adopted in the other five counties -- and even in deciding the three parties' candidates for legislative elections.
Lin said that there will be room for coordination as long as the three parties have a consensus.
However, he admitted that despite the agreement to cooperate in Kaohsiung County, the KMT still needs to coordinate with its grassroots supporters, who have expressed disapproval of the plan.
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