The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday decided to set up a party development committee to delineate the future role of the party in the wake of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) announcement that he will resign the party chairmanship early next year, after the December legislative elections.
The 13-member committee approved at the Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting yesterday comprises senior party officials from across the administrative branches and party factions with the aim of re-examining the party's previous line of synchronization of state and party affairs.
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (
Chang yesterday said that in light of recent criticism that the DPP ties together party and state affairs, a regulation added to the party charter two years ago that the president is required to serve concurrently as the party chairman was not well thought-out.
"For the purpose of sustainable and long-term governance, the party needs to think of how to reposition itself in the future including whether it will be positioned as a soft party or one that closely works with government. The way in which Chen will relinquish his chairmanship will also be included as one of the committee's tasks," Chang said.
Members of the committee include Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu will be involved in party operations for the first time, creating a balance of power among Su, Yu, Hsieh and Lu, who are all considered possible successors to Chen in the 2008 presidential election.
The CEC meeting yesterday also passed revisions to nomination rules governing the politicians groups of the DPP legislators-at-large. The new rule stipulates that the scoring of the candidate's performance on the party member vote and opinion poll will be changed to 30-70 percent respectively, as opposed to the previous 50-50 percent weighting.
Meanwhile, candidates contending for legislator-at-large seats have to possess one of the following qualifications: have held public office at county commissioner or city mayor, legislators for two terms, or vice ministers of the Cabinet agencies.
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