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DPP nomination process was flawed, legislator says

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator who failed to win the party's nomination yesterday blamed her failure on defects in the nomination process.

Hsieh Hsin-ni (謝欣霓) was seeking nomination in Taichung County for the year-end legislative election. Although she won the round of voting among party members by a slim margin earlier this month, she was eliminated in the second part of the nomination process, which consisted of public opinion polls.

Hsieh lost the nomination battle to former DPP legislator Chien Chao-tung (簡肇棟).

In the DPP nomination system, members' votes make up 30 percent of an aspiring candidate's total score, while a public opinion poll conducted by telephone makes up the remaining 70 percent.

However, Hsieh said that there had been irregularities in the way the opinion polls had been handled, and appealed to the party headquarters.

"I would've accepted the result if everything had been conducted fairly, but I cannot accept losing to someone who cheated," Hsieh said before she walked into DPP headquarters yesterday.

Party regulations stipulate that the polling company should be selected by a drawing of lots, "but Focus Survey Research [FSR] had been summarily appointed to conduct the polls," Hsieh said.

The DPP denied that the selection process was flawed.

"We used six survey companies to conduct the opinion polls," Super Meng (孟義超), director of the DPP's Department of Culture and Information, told the Taipei Times by telephone. "As we were conducing polls in two electoral districts at the same time, we simply divided the six companies into two groups, and thus there was no need for drawing lots."

Hsieh also said that FSR had conducted pre-election polls on Chien's behalf, which indicated a possible conflict of interest.

Chien denied ever having used FSR, while FSR's executive director Amanda Ho (何麗萍) said in a press release that the firm had adhered to a professional code of ethics throughout its participation in the DPP's nomination process, and would "reserve all legal rights toward any individual who harms the company's reputation with untrue claims."

The DPP has accepted the appeal and will form a five-member committee to investigate the issue.
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