The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday formally established a legislative campaign strategy group for the upcoming legislative election in December.
The group will be responsible for mapping out strategies in the legislative campaign as well as coordinating the imminent nomination of legislative candidates, which is slated to be completed by the end of July.
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday said that to achieve the goal of gaining a majority in the Legislative Yuan and maintain the strategic partnership with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), the party will carefully gauge various factors, including cooperation with the TSU and the nomination strategies of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance to provide a comprehensive nomination of the DPP lawmakers.
Chang announced yesterday at a press conference after the weekly meeting of the Central Standing Committee that the legislative strategy group will be headed by the seven campaign managers of the presidential election.
In addition to Chang, the other campaign managers in the group include Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and the party's presidential campaign spokesman, Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁).
Chang yesterday said the number of lawmakers nominated will definitely exceed the current 87 DPP lawmakers and is expected to exceed half of the total 225 legislative seats -- more than 113 seats.
Chang did not specify whether the party alone will nominate over half of the seats or collaborate with the TSU.
"The number of the legislative candidates we nominate will be a key factor in determining whether we win or lose the election. We need more information from local party chapters. The legislative campaign strategy group will glean all kinds of information to serve as the principles for the nominations," Chang said.
As for the schedule regarding the nomination, the party decided that all local party chapters should recommend a nomination list for their respective districts by April 27. The nomination list will then be reviewed by the Central Executive Committee.
The primaries will be held on May 23 and the legislative candidate nominees will be announced in a party congress on July 18.
Chiou yesterday said the legislative election will be a cutthroat competition with the pan-blue camp, as it was in the presidential election, but he remained confident over the green camp's chances compared with the last legislative election in 2001.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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