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DPP presidential hopefuls agree to negotiation policy

The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) four presidential hopefuls have all agreed to engage in negotiation to select the party's presidential nominees.

Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) made the announcement late last night at a press conference following a two-hour meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the four presidential hopefuls.

Chen Chi-main did not elaborate, saying only that the four agreed to participate in campaign debates and that they would neither withdraw from the DPP nor run on their own if they did not secure the party's nomination.

It was the second such meeting since the party's four aspirants completed their registrations last week for the party's presidential primary.

The president's first effort on Friday night failed as DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun stuck to his guns, insisting that a primary be held to determine the party's presidential candidate because "everybody's policies are very different."

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), however, agreed that the presidential candidate could be agreed upon as a result of negotiations.

Meanwhile, a private society with close ties to Yu is set to hold two public debates for the four aspirants this month.

The Taiwan Society said yesterday that the first debate would be held on March 24 and the second on March 31. SETTV and Radio Taiwan International will broadcast the March 24 debate live.

Broadcast details for the second debate are yet to be finalized.

The president has expressed the hope that the DPP could work with the society to organize the debates. The society's secretary-general, Chet Yang (楊文嘉), said he would discuss the matter with the party.

Yang called on the DPP's four presidential hopefuls to face the debates with courage and said that the party's candidates would face a legitimacy problem if they were selected before the debates were held.

Michelle Wang (王美琇), deputy secretary-general of the Northern Taiwan Society, agreed, saying that her society was strongly opposed to the DPP selecting their candidates for president and vice president through closed-door negotiations.

"The negotiations should be about the path the party and the nation should take, rather than about who should be allowed to run for president," Wang said.
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