DPP alters its plans for ceremony

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it would revise its current plan to invite half a million people to attend President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration ceremony to reduce the impact of the event on the capital's traffic.

DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) yesterday said the party will make appropriate changes to the original plan of inviting 500,000 DPP supporters to attend the inauguration due to traffic and security concerns.

The number of people is likely to be reduced to around 200,000.

"We will make careful adjustments to the plan to take into consideration the enthusiasm of many supporters to take part in the inauguration ceremony, as well as the Taipei City Government's concerns about traffic and security," Lee said yesterday at the party's headquarters after the DPP's weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.

Lee said Chen advised that the inauguration ceremony be held in a "simple" and "democratic carnival" style.

However, Lee said the Presidential Office's preparations to deliver 230,000 invitations to its supporters will not change.

"Many of our supporters have voiced strong enthusiasm for attending the inauguration ceremony, as many of them said they didn't have the chance to do so in 2000. We have to take into account this factor as well," Lee said.

In response to some DPP lawmakers' suggestions to encourage DPP supporters to carry national flags when they attend the inauguration, Lee said "the use of national flags, which will be displayed around the city, and the singing of national anthem are naturally the process of the inaugural ceremony," downplaying the implication of using the flags to "mend ethnic fences."

Lee said the DPP has created a distinctive merry and festive rally-style, saying that the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally turned out to be clean and orderly.

"Having these experiences, we can promise the Taipei City Government that the DPP will take responsibility for the events it holds," Lee said.

Meanwhile, Lee yesterday said that the DPP will increase the number of legislative candidates it nominates amid the outpouring of support after the presidential election.

Lee said he has met with his Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) counterparts to discuss details of cooperation between the two parties for the year-end legislative elections.

The DPP plans to nominate 92 legislative candidates, while the TSU will nominate around 30 candidates.

Lee said, "the atmosphere in the meeting with the TSU officials was great and the parties reached a consensus."

"The competition and conflict between the DPP and TSU in the previous legislative election was barely seen this time. The TSU was very cooperative and helpful to the DPP during the presidential election, and given such a solid cooperation base, we will respect the TSU and reduce the DPP's nominations in certain areas," Lee said.