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Yu's team rebuffs Chen's primary plan

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun's campaign headquarters yesterday raised doubts about President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) proposal to ensure "deep blue" voters are excluded from the party's presidential primary poll.

Chen's plan was designed to screen out voters who support the pan-blue camp and include only pan-green camp or swing voters, the Presidential Office said on Monday.

But at a press conference yesterday, Super Meng (孟義超), Yu's headquarters' spokesman, said Yu's campaign was worried that such a poll might be manipulated by "certain people to their interests."

He said the party should consider whether such a survey might have a negative impact on the development of the DPP's primary mechanism and if it would create a negative impression of the party.

"The chairman believes, after Taiwan's plight last September [with the anti-Chen campaign led by former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德)], the most important lesson [for the party] is how to allow those who represent the DPP's core values run in elections," Meng said.

"Therefore, only pan-green supporters should be polled," he said.

But he said Yu would respect the way the president handled the matter because the president had his own concerns.

Chen's proposal was also endorsed by two presidential hopefuls -- Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) -- but the other two hopefuls, Yu and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), were kept in the dark.

The proposal is expected to be discussed in a meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) today.

Meanwhile, Huang Ching-lin (黃慶林), one of the CEC members who backed the proposal, withdrew his support for it yesterday.

In a statement faxed to DPP headquarters, Huang said he had been "deceived" by Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who had said that all four presidential hopefuls had agreed on the poll style.

Huang said he would support any form of poll that was backed by the majority of the party but he would oppose Chen's proposal at today's meeting because all four contenders had not backed it.

Some DPP legislators worried yesterday that putting the proposal to a vote could cause internal rifts.

DPP Legislator Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) said the party could be divided if the proposal was put up for a vote today because the idea had not been endorsed by Yu and Lu.

"It is good that President Chen has coordinated among the hopefuls, but all of the contenders' opinions about how the primary poll should be conducted should be respected," he said.

DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) told a press conference the proposal could be put up for a vote today because the numbers of those who liked it and those who disliked it were evenly split.

He later said that he would suggest the party adopt a poll that would exclude about 45 percent of the nation's voters, including "deep-blue" voters and those undecided voters who were more likely to vote for the pan-blue camp.

Wang said it was still unclear if the president's proposal would go through, even though Presidential Deputy Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told a party meeting yesterday that Chen wanted to push for it at today's CEC meeting.

That was because of the need for the party to hold an impromptu national assembly -- which means grassroots representatives could propose changes to the CEC's decisions if they don't like them, Wang said.

Such an assembly is required because a proposal initiated by Huang had been endorsed by the requisite number of district headquarters' executive committees, Wang said.
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