Print

Mail

wiki links

DPP to formally approve Hsieh nomination

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will formally announce the nomination of premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) as its official candidate in next year's presidential elections, a DPP official said yesterday.

"On Tuesday, the [DPP] Central Executive Committee will pass a motion to nominate Frank Hsieh as the party's official candidate for the 2008 presidential election," Jason Yen (顏加松), deputy director of the DPP's Department of Culture and Information, told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.

"After the motion is passed, the party will officially announce Hsieh's candidacy on Wednesday," he said.

Hsieh won 62,849 votes, or 44.66 percent of all votes cast, during the party's member vote earlier this month.

Based on the DPP's primary system, the party member vote counts for only 30 percent of a would-be candidate's score, with the remaining 70 percent coming from a public poll. However, the three other presidential contenders -- Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun -- decided to withdraw after the member vote count, leaving the field clear for Hsieh.

Meanwhile, a DPP source said that Hsieh would delay a planned visit to the US to mid-July.

A DPP official in charge of party affairs on the US West Coast said that Hsieh has decided to postpone his visit from next month to July because many key US figures will not be in Washington late next month or in early July.

Hsieh is scheduled to leave Taipei on July 18 for Washington, where he will meet US officials and thinktank members.

He will proceed to New York on July 25 and depart for Los Angeles on July 28, the DPP official said.

In other news, the DPP is planning to organize a series of fundraising banquets next month to support and promote a referendum to reclaim the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) stolen assets.

"We've spent a lot of money to promote the referendum, that's why we need to raise funds," DPP's Department of Culture and Information Director Super Meng (孟義超) said yesterday.

"We're looking to [raise] NT$10 million, [US$300,000]," he added.

Each party official or government head has his or her own fundraising quota to reach.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Yu, legislative whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and Hsieh are tasked with raising NT$1.5 million each, party officials said.

The DPP Web site said that, as of Friday night, the party has gathered over 1 million signatures for the referendum, exceeding the referendum law's requirement of only 826,000 signatures.

But the party has decided to raise its goal to collect 1.4 million signatures after spotting some overlapping signatures on the list.

Additional reporting by CNA
This story has been viewed 1870 times.