With seven months left in the run-up to the year-end Taipei mayoral elections, the DPP still remains tight-lipped about potential candidates to run against popular Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Signs, however, suggest that Cabinet Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (
Although the party's ad hoc campaign team finalized the recommendation list of potential candidates yesterday, it did not reveal the number of possible candidates it recommended, or their names.
The list is made for the reference of incoming DPP chairman and President Chen Shui-bian (
The two are scheduled to make public their chosen candidate sometime in May for the final approval of the party's Central Executive Committee on May 28.
Addressing the press conference held at the DPP headquarters yesterday, Michael You (游盈隆), DPP deputy secretary-general, said that it is inappropriate for the campaign team to publicize the names, "because there are procedures to follow," he said.
You said that the final candidate will be a viable one.
"The potential candidates we recommended today are household names and we're sure the final candidate hand-picked by the president will eventually win the election," You said.
Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉), a member of the campaign team, agreed.
"It's definitely not true that we plan to nominate a weak candidate to throw the game so Ma would remain in his post and eventually drop the idea of running against Chen in the 2004 presidential election," Luo said.
As rumors that Chen favors Lee to challenge Ma have swept through both the Cabinet and the legislature, Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday told a full-house interpellation session in the legislature that he personally thinks that Lee will retain his post.
"I clearly expressed my reluctance to see Lee leave the Cabinet when the president and I met last night," Yu said. "He told me that he has not yet come to a final decision on the matter and that Lee is just one of the potential candidates recommended by the campaign team."
Lee also dismissed speculation that he will represent the party in the mayoral campaign.
"No one has ever contacted me regarding the matter," Lee said.
Hong told the Taipei Times yesterday that he has not heard from party headquarters over the past few days since the last time he talked with them.
"They had originally asked about my intentions in regard to the race, but I told them that Lee Ying-yuan may be a better choice because he's signaled to me in private that he's interested in running," he said.
DPP lawmaker Mark Chen (
"I feel perfectly fine because I never thought of running in the first place," he said.
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