Come up with a Kaohsiung mayoral candidate or else, say lawmakers

A group of KMT and PFP legislators yesterday threatened to support their favored candidate to run for Kaohsiung mayor, unless the leaders of the two parties decide on a joint candidate by July 1.

The legislators, who included the KMT's Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Chiang Yi-wen (江綺雯) from Kaohsiung and the PFP's Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) from Taipei, pressed their parties to coordinate among the four aspirants for the post so as to prepare themselves for the campaign.

Chiang said there is a consensus among local supporters of both parties that they should unite and field one candidate in order to beat DPP incumbent Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

Compared with the DPP's quick decision to nominate Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) to run against the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in Taipei, the KMT and PFP have lagged behind by delaying their decision on a joint candidate for Kaohsiung mayor, Chiang said.

According to Huang, any of the four "pan-blue" hopefuls has the potential to beat Hsieh, but he said only one should join the race under the "pan-blue" banner.

With the four contestants each owning a group of supporters, conflicts will be inevitable and will hamper their cooperation if uncertainty continues, Huang warned.

Lin, meanwhile pointed out that Hsieh had spent two years preparing for his campaign before he officially joined the Kaohisung mayoral race in 1998.

With election day just six months away, the KMT and PFP are obviously late, Lin said.

In addition to PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄), there are three other KMT aspirants for the Kaohsiung job: former vice mayor of Kaohsiung Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英), former National Police Administration director-general Yao Kao-chiao (姚高橋) and Kaohsiung City County Speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川).

Pan Chia-sen (潘家森), head of the KMT's Kaohisung branch office, yesterday said the KMT will single out one person from the three KMT contestants first before negotiating with the PFP.

After KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) returns from his US visit on Saturday, he will arrange a meeting with PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) as soon as possible to decide on a candidate, Pan said.

Also yesterday, former DPP Chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) rejected rumors suggesting that he had decided to drop his Kaohsiung mayoral bid.

Shih said that he would not quit halfway through the campaign, saying he will definitely "fight it out."