The Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) leader yesterday denied rumors that the party will recruit people who lost in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primaries for the mayoral and county commissioner elections, turning them into TSU nominees and running them against their DPP colleagues, saying that the TSU will not undermine the pan-green camp's unity.
According to local newspaper reports, three DPP primary candidates, including incumbent Nantou County Commissioner Lin Tseng-nan (林宗男), former DPP legislators Lin Kuo-hua (林國華) and Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜), who lost the primaries in Nantou, Yunlin and Taichung County to their competitors, DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), former DPP legislator Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) and former vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), and wanted to join the TSU to challenge the DPP contenders.
When asked about the issue, TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (
"Perhaps some rumor has it that they [the three Lins] will seek help from the TSU, but there's no concrete evidence to show that they will come," Shu said. "I have no contact with these people, either."
"In fact, the door of the TSU is open for everyone. There is no reason for us to refuse elites to join us. But we will not invite specific people to join us or intentionally undermine another party's foundations," Shu added.
The TSU's newly-appointed Secretary-General, Cheng Cheng-lung (
"These three DPP talents are well-matched in strength with those who were nominated by the DPP. As far as I know, some of them chose to stay in the DPP, while some of them have different plans," Cheng said.
But Cheng denied that the TSU is taking advantage of the DPP's awkward situation and undermining the DPP, saying that the TSU has a right to nominate its candidates.
"Anyone who wants to campaign for local heads on behalf of the TSU must join the TSU. Once they join us, they are people of the TSU," Cheng said.
However, Cheng also stressed that the TSU will not get its own way in the nomination issue, and will have to consider the overall situation because the pan-green camp might lose to the pan-blue camp in Nantou, Yunlin and Taichung counties if the pan-green camp did not work out a cooperative plan.
"Actually we are in contact with some of the people from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but they are just not the suitable candidates that we want," Cheng said.
To boost the momentum of the TSU's most promising candidate in the year-end elections -- Chen Chien-ming (
Meanwhile, according to Shu, Lee donated NT$1 million to help residents who live in areas affected by the recent flooding, and asked TSU members to help the victims of the disaster as much as they can.
"Former president Lee cares most about the fishermen, farmers and old people living alone in Yunlin and Pingtung counties because he has lived and worked in these areas," Shu said. "He said it's no big deal for him to donate the money, and he hoped that his donation could focus more attention on the flood victims."
Lee also called on the legislature to support the NT$80 billion (US$2.5 billion) budget for upgrading flood-prevention infrastructure, but he thought that the Executive Yuan should propose a comprehensive plan for flood prevention first, according to Shu.
The TSU's chapter office in central Taiwan and southern Taiwan will each also donate NT$1 million.
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