President Chen Shui-bian (
The torch will then be passed onto Lee Ying-yuan (
Other activities of the DPP's two-day's of celebration include a tea party at the Grand Hotel today, an athletics meeting tomorrow at Panchiao stadium in Taipei County and a mass entry into the party of 1,000 members on Tuesday.
Today the torch will be carried from the Grand Hotel along Chung Shan N. Road to DPP headquarters, where party Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will receive it.
The party has arranged a one-day athletic event at the stadium for tomorrow, where DPP Chairman Chen Shui-bian and the "No. 1 substitute chairman" Annette Lu (
Top officials who normally wear a suit and tie, such as Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Secretary-General to the President Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), Deputy Secretary-General to the President Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) and National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen's (邱義仁), will demonstrate their athletic prowess at the event.
The DPP's establishment on Sept. 28, 1986, marked the culmination of 100 years of struggle and sacrifice by the Taiwanese people for self-government.
Proposing people's right to self-determination, the DPP appealed to ethnic Taiwanese, long regarded by the KMT's mainland constituency as second-class citizens.
Once formed, the DPP continued the fight begun by the tang wai, or outside the party activists, against the corrupt, authoritarian rule of the KMT. Many of the DPP's founding members, and a significant number of the party's current leadership, include family members and defense lawyers of political prisoners and dissidents who were willing to risk their freedom and their lives to change Taiwan's political situation.
* President Chen Shui-bian will light a torch to mark the 16th anniversary of the party.
* DPP officials are holding a tea party at the Grand Hotel today.
* The DPP will welcome 1,000 new members to the party on Tuesday.
* As part of an athletic event tomorrow, Chen and Annette Lu will lead officials in a run.
Despite the relative youth of the party, strong election results show that the party has earned the confidence of the people
Fourteen years after its founding, the DPP realized its goal of "political party rotation" and saw the peaceful transition of power.
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