The DPP yesterday said it would take an honest look at the consequences of its failure in the Hualien County Commissioner by-election and make a thorough self-examination in order to regain itself for the most important challenge of next year's presidential election.
"The DPP frankly accepts the consequences of the election setback. As a result, the party will seek the cause within itself and will not cast the blame on any specific individuals," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday in his capacity as DPP chairman.
Chen made the comments at the party's weekly Central Standing Committee yesterday which focused on examining the by-election defeat.
"Every member of the party made the greatest effort to battle for the election. The failure will definitely be a constructive force for the DPP's future development," Chen said.
You Ying-lung (游盈隆), the DPP candidate in the by-election, played down the implication that the Hualien results foreshadow the DPP's fortunes in the next presidential election: "Hualien's election results could never represent an equivalent to the party's performance in the next presidential election, because Hualien's population accounts for only one percent of the total national population," You said.
"Compared with the DPP's voter support in the 2000 presidential poll, we even saw a small increase in the number of votes we received in this by-election," You said.
The DPP also responded to the extensive attacks on Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
"We didn't hold any discussions about who should be punished. We will simply examine ourselves and will not cast the fault on any individuals," DPP Secretary General Chang Chun-hsiung (
The party declined to comment on whether Hualien Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih (
However, several DPP officials voiced resentment about Yang's conduct, which many believe swayed the election results.
"I simply resent the idea that after his inappropriate behavior -- in which he made impartial comments about the government -- he was treated like a judicial hero," Legislator Lawrence Gao (
During the campaign, Yang openly denounced the government's anti-corruption measures and engaged in several verbal confrontations with Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南).
Gao yesterday concluded that five major factors had led to the party's defeat in the by-election.
"These five major causes, by and large, led to the election failure: the operation of the `save-and-dump' strategy employed by the pan-blue camp; a rush nomination process for the party's candidate; the lack of support for the campaign policies proposed by the DPP; inefficient response to the media and issues raised by rival candidates; and a pan-green versus pan-blue dual that should have been avoided," Gao said.
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