PFP Chairman James Soong (楚瑜) yesterday said it is not important who takes the lead and who turns out to be the running mates in the joint ticket that would be fielded by the KMT and the PFP in the 2004 presidential campaign, as long as it's a combination that will stand a big chance of winning.
Soong made the remark in response to a question as to whether he would accept an arrangement in which he would be the running mate of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), if both eventually decided to join the campaign.
Soong, who stood uncontested, was re-elected yesterday as the PFP's chairman with 99.46 percent of the votes, in the first direct chairmanship election held by the party.
The polling was conducted via correspondence among party members. A total of 62,002 voting slips were sent out, of which only 39,303 were returned, resulting in a turnout rate of 63.39 percent.
Soong received 39,091 votes, with the remaining 212 votes were rendered invalid.
Soong pledged that the PFP would work to become a democratic and innovative party and to fulfill its responsibility as an opposition party.
He added that the party would also prepare itself well for winning future preesidential elections.
Soong, however, said that now is not the right time to talk about the presidential candidacy. He said he has never discussed with Lien how the positions would be shared.
"What we should do now is to take the time to learn what the public wants. Positions are not important, because the priority is to win the chance to serve the people," Soong said.
Although Soong has not yet announced his candidacy, he is widely believed to be ready to join the electoral race again in 2004.
Lien also declined to confirm whether he would join the race or not, but he said on Tuesday that he would not rule out the possibility.
Soong said every party hopes for the chance to serve the people directly, and the PFP will not shirk its duty if it is called upon by the people to resolve their problems.
Soong said he understands that many people are disappointed by the DPP's performance and these people are expecting that the KMT and PFP will join forces to accomplish another transfer of power in 2004.
"It is most important to keep the people's needs in mind and to put aside partisan interests," Soong asserted.
Soong said that the KMT and the PFP must be able to demonstrate their ability to solve the problems that the DPP has failed to solve.
He criticized the DPP for chanting too many slogans but doing too little over the past two years while the party has been in power.
He said that the DPP government had decided not to build any new reservoirs and had assured the people that there wouldn't be water shortages, while it also intended to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and promised there wouldn't be power shortages, Soong pointed out.
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