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DPP still undecided on public poll

Vice President Annette Lu, right, talks with Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Yu Shyi-kun at a meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday. PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Standing Committee failed to reach an agreement yesterday on how the party should conduct public opinion polls for its district legislative and presidential primaries.

DPP Acting Chairman Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) told a press conference that the party "could finalize" the polling scheme for district legislative primary by the end of this month.

As for a public poll on the presidential primary, Chai said that the party would hear President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) out first before making a decision.

The committee also decided yesterday to hold policy debates for the party's four presidential hopefuls -- Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

The debates will be sponsored by the party -- in accordance with DPP nomination regulations -- instead of being hosted by the pro-independence Taiwan Society, which had scheduled two televised debates late this month.

As to how and when the debates will be held, DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the committee had decided to let him and the four presidential hopefuls' aides discuss the details and report back to the committee.

However, the party will not stop the four presidential hopefuls from attending the Taiwan Society's debates, nor will it order them to take part in the debates, Lin added.

Meanwhile, Yu, who was attending a memorial service yesterday, gave a thumbs-up to the results of negotiations held by the president on Tuesday night with the four presidential aspirants to determine the party's representative.

This was Chen's second attempt to negotiate an agreement among the presidential hopefuls. No consensus was reached at the first meeting as Yu insisted on holding a primary to choose the party's representative, while the other three hopefuls conceded that a candidate could be chosen through negotiations.

Following a second meeting between the president and the four aspirants, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) announced late on Tuesday night that all four agreed to hold negotiations and promised they would not withdraw from the party or run as independents should they fail to secure the party's nomination.

Hsieh, who also attended the memorial service, refused to comment on the matter.
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