Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday defended the party's decision to choose its legislative candidates through opinion polls, urging the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to cooperate with it for a pan-green victory.
President Chen Shui-bian (
"The pan-blue camp has already integrated itself, and the pan-green camp will lose the elections if we don't cooperate with each other," Yu said in Taipei.
"It's our responsibility to unite the pan-green camp, and the DPP will show its sincerity," he said.
TSU policy committee director Chou Mei-li (
"I hope the DPP will respect the TSU's political strength, and won't field candidates based on poll results unless necessary," she told a press conference at the TSU's headquarters.
The TSU is not opposed to holding opinion polls, but it preferred to negotiate with the DPP first about the distribution of the seats, Chou said.
She said party officials would talk to TSU legislators who are opposed to fielding candidates based on opinion polls. While TSU was willing to cooperate with the DPP, Chou said it would not follow the pan-blue camp's example and merge with its larger ally.
When asked to comment on the pan-green camp's cooperation plan, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said his party and the People First Party have been making a great effort to negotiate on the seats in next year's elections, and their process was going more smoothly that that of the pan-green camp.
RSS