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Hau must heal pan-blue rifts to seal Taipei candidacy

"Now that the KMT has presented its nominee, we should negotiate with the PFP to reach a consensus on the [final Taipei mayoral] candidate. The pan-blue camp can't afford a split."

Lai Shyh-bao, KMT legislator

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin's (郝龍斌) victory in last Saturday's party primary seemingly reflected a party united behind its nominee.

However, his embarrassing score in party member voting and a challenge from People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) -- who has said he intends to join the race -- have presented both Hau and the KMT with the daunting task of building pan-blue unity.

Hau won the primary with 59.68 percent support, surpassing his only rival, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), who scored 40.31 percent. Although Hau claimed the Taipei candidacy by attracting an average 60 percent support rate in opinion polls over Ting's 30 percent, Ting won the most support among party members, attracting 10,730 votes compared with Hau's 6,412.

"I returned to the KMT only four months ago, and so our camp had anticipated an inferior result for the party member vote. But I visited as many members as I could and the number of votes I received beat my expectations," Hau said, speaking after Saturday's primary.

After Hau switched from the New Party to the KMT in January to join the primary, he faced criticism for being a "political chameleon" -- both for leaving his old party and for previously accepting a post in the Democratic Progressive Party government, serving as head of the Environmental Protection Administration.

"Some grassroots supporters expressed doubts about Hau's political loyalty, and may end up shifting their support from the party's candidate to PFP Chairman Soong in the election," said KMT Taipei City Councilor Lin Ching-chang (林晉章), who had supported another KMT mayoral hopeful, former Taipei deputy mayor Yeh Chin-chuan (葉金川), before he dropped out of the primary.

Lin said such concerns had not faded even after Hau's success in the primary. He warned that a failure to unite the pan-blue camp might lead to a repeat of the 1994 Taipei mayoral election, when two "pan-blue" candidates split the ticket and gave Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) a surprise victory.

Acknowledging the concerns, Hau has been visiting KMT Taipei City councilors as well as party legislators, seeking their support.

In response to Soong's suggestion that the KMT conduct a survey to decide whether he or Hau would be the best candidate for the pan-blue camp, Hau said that he was the KMT's legitimate mayoral candidate.

"It seemed to me that [Soong's] suggestion was `green room politics' [closed-door negotiations]. While I didn't get many votes among party members, I am the legitimate KMT candidate," Hau said on Tuesday during a visit to the KMT caucus.

PFP Spokesman Hsieh Kung-pin (謝公秉) said surveys were not the only way for the KMT and PFP to decide on a final candidate, adding that top officials from both parties should achieve pan-blue unity as soon as possible and find a candidate who can win the election.

"Some KMT hopefuls questioned the fairness of the survey used in the KMT's primary. So, officials from the two parties need to negotiate an integrated nomination mechanism to decide on a final candidate," he said.

KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) agreed that pan-blue unity was the key to victory in the Taipei mayoral election.

"Now that the KMT has presented its nominee, we should negotiate with the PFP to reach a consensus on the [final] candidate. The pan-blue camp can't afford a split," he said.

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Monday that the party would consider Soong's suggestion and may adopt a resolution acceptable to both parties.

Political analysts said that Hau would ultimately win pan-blue voters' support despite Soong's challenge.

"I think voters will accept any candidate as long as he goes through a fair nomination mechanism," said Wang Yeh-li (王業立), a political science professor at Tunghai University.

Political critic Liao Da-chi (廖達琪) of National Chungshan University expressed a similar view, saying that Soong's political career could still end even if he decides to join the race.

"He should instead devote himself to fighting for more seats for PFP city councilors if he doesn't want to see any more of his party members leave," she said.
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