Although the top strategists of the pan-green camp plan to hammer out the specifics of vote-allocation tactics in next few days, some Demo-cratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates voiced their reluctance yesterday to see votes shared with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).
The DPP candidates worry that such a move could hurt their own chances.
"How can vote allocation work in Keelung, where the pan-green camp usually wins just a single seat?" said DPP Legislator Wang Tuoh (王拓), who is campaigning in that city.
He reacted strongly to the idea that the DPP's headquarters might ask him to transfer some of his votes to TSU candidate Wang Tung-hui (王東暉) in order to help the pan-green camp win two seats.
"Both of us could actually lose the election if the vote allocation is messed up. Especially since their aren't enough votes for the DPP in Keelung City at present and Wang Tung-hui is so new to the city's voters," Wang Tuoh said.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), who is campaigning in Hsinchu City and has been asked to help the TSU's Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), has the same concerns.
Ker said it was too early to talk about vote allocation.
Concerned about that his party's lackluster campaign, TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) has proposed that the DPP cooperate with the TSU in five cities -- Keelung, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung -- to save the TSU's candidates and help the pan-green camp gain a legislative majority.
Lin said yesterday that he has contacted DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and they would soon discuss a vote allocation strategy.
"For those DPP candidates who have earned an adequate momentum at this point, it might be a sacrifice for them to transfer part of their votes to TSU candidates with little support in the same electoral districts," Lin said.
"But if the pan-greens really want to become a legislative majority, the DPP cannot just standby with folded arms and watch the TSU candidates sink. It has to help us," Lin said.
Lin said that if the DPP could make its candidates team up with the TSU's, his party would arrange for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to campaign for the DPP nominees as well.
DPP campaign aides noted that it might be difficult to implement vote allocation in all five constituencies since the DPP has worked hard to gain support in these areas.
"The DPP has three principles regarding vote allocation: mutual understanding and good interaction with the TSU and then let the issue incubate," Lee said.
He said the DPP will never let any chance go by that could helps the pan-green camp win a legislative majority.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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