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DPP committee lines up to support Chen

In an about-face, a top Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) committee is expected to propose today that the party chairman be elected by party members in the event that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) steps down from the post early next year.

The DPP Party Development Committee, convened to discuss how the chairman should be selected, reached a consensus on Tuesday that direct election by the party membership should determine the chairman, a decision that reverses an earlier committee agreement that Chen should remain as chairman.

The committee, which consists of high-ranking officials including Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), had originally suggested that Chen retain his concurrent post of party chairman, and that a successor be chosen from among the party's 35 Central Executive Committee members if he insisted on quitting the job.

However, on Tuesday the committee endorsed the direct election of the party chairman, and gave Chen the right to select three Central Standing Committee members -- a move widely believed to be driven by Chen himself.

Media commentators yesterday censured the changes as evidence that Chen is dominating party processes.

They claimed yesterday that Chen was crippling dissent within the party and that the development committee was just a rubber stamp. The reports also criticized Chen's right to select three members for the Central Standing Committee, the party's core decision-making body, while not serving as party chairman.

DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), the convenor of the development committee, yesterday dismissed reports that Chen dominated party opinion.

"The proposal to choose a new party chairman through a direct election is in line with the party's tradition of honoring the democratic spirit, and it will only be validated if it receives the approval of the party congress on Sept. 2," Chang said. "It is not a decision to be made by President Chen alone, as the media reported."

Chang yesterday defended the development committee, saying that a direct election was the most comprehensive method to choose party chairman whether the party was in power or not.

As for concerns that the elected chairman's opinions would end up at odds with the president, who would remain the effective leader of the party, Chang yesterday said that such a situation was unlikely to happen as party decision-making processes were collective, and that the chairman did not have exclusive decision-making authority.

Chen said in June that he wished to stop serving concurrently as party chairman to maintain administrative neutrality. He said he wanted to step down from the post after legislative elections in December.

The earlier decision of the committee last month suggesting that Chen retain the chairman's post was made as internal polls showed the majority of party executives preferred him to continue in that position.
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