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DPP to establish anti-vote-buying centers for polls

The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Standing Committee yesterday agreed to form several anti-vote-buying centers and campaign teams for the legislative elections.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who doubles as the party chairman, told a meeting that followed the committee session to discuss the elections that only unity could guarantee victory in the presidential election.

Chen said he was confident that the DPP could win 35 district legislator seats and 15 legislators-at-large seats in next month's polls. He also said a loss in those elections would not win the party sympathy votes in the March presidential election.

The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) staged a protest outside the DPP headquarters before the meetings, criticizing the party for abandoning its commitment to protect the environment.

GPT Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have "contaminated" the colors of green and blue.

Pan led five or six supporters in chanting "black-gold DPP, incompetent in fighting global warming," and "sacrificing the environment, currying favor with business conglomerates."

Their protest was broken up by police officers deployed outside the building to protect Chen.

Attorney and environmentalist activist Robin Winkler (文魯彬) threw a book over the heads of the police officers before leaving.

In related news, Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗), whom the GPT has nominated as a candidate for legislator-at-large, said yesterday that she was no longer a DPP member because she had stopped paying her membership fees a long time ago. The DPP's Central Evaluation Committee was set to expel Lin yesterday.

"A better way to say it is that all the world's green organizations have expelled the DPP," she said.
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