The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday held a provisional National Congress meeting, during which nomination guidelines concerning the upcoming National Assembly elections in May and mayoral and county commissioner elections in December were discussed.
During the two-hour meeting, a decision was reached to nominate 150 candidates for the National Assembly elections on May 14, in which one-third of all nominations will be reserved for female representatives, while one in 10 will be reserved for Aboriginal nominees.
"This decision was reached in a move to highlight the importance the party attaches to female and Aboriginal representatives," said DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) at a news conference following the meeting.
The elite members of the governing party, including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) also made an appearance at the meeting.
Members attending the provisional National Congress meeting had also decided to entrust the DPP's central executive committee to appoint candidates to run for the Keelung and Hsinchu mayoral and county commissioner elections, Lee said.
At the end of the meeting, a statement underscoring the party's stance in "persisting reform and safeguarding Taiwan" was declared, which lambasted China's proposed "anti-secession" law as "legislation that aims at changing cross-strait state quo and undermining the region's stability."
The declaration stated that "the nation's 23 million people are the only ones who have the right to make a decision with regard to any changes concerning Taiwan's future."
Regarding the demonstration planned for March 26 which the DPP is organizing, Lee yesterday said DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) will continue to solicit support from all sectors of society to take part in the rally to oppose Beijing's proposed "anti-secession" law.
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