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DPP could choose local candidates by negotiation

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may select candidates for next year's local chief elections via negotiations rather than primaries to avoid causing divisions among potential aspirants.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the elections in December of next year were important to the party and that she hoped the party would nominate the best candidates possible in a short period of time.

Tsai said she hoped to select the candidates via negotiations to avoid causing any unnecessary splits that could negatively impact the elections.

The party has partly blamed its resounding defeats in the legislative elections in January and the presidential poll in March on political infighting and fissures caused by the primaries.

Tsai said that some party members have proposed scrapping the primary system and replacing it with negotiations.

Tsai made the remarks while speaking at a handover ceremony for the party’s chapter boss in Chiayi City yesterday.

Huang Cheng-nan (黃正男), the new chairman of the DPP’s Chiayi chapter, said that officials from party headquarters should visit local chapters more often to listen to their opinions and interact with them, adding that the party should spend more time and effort developing closer relationships with grassroots supporters.

Former Chiayi chapter chief Chen Mao-sung (陳茂松) suggested that the party’s “big four” return to their individual hometowns and run in next year’s elections. He was referring to former DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun, former premier Su Tseng-chang, (蘇貞昌) former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

Chen also asked Tsai to consider nominating the party’s former government officials to stand in the race.

She said she agreed that the party must strengthen its connection with grassroots supporters. To aid in this process, she said the party would move its Central Standing Committee to Chiayi on Wednesday and hold the weekly meeting outside of Taipei on a regular basis.

In a bid to win the elections, Tsai said she had formed an election strategy task force. The team will be led by former chairman of the Council of Agriculture Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and supervised by Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文). DPP Deputy Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) will serve as the chief executive secretary of the task force and lead the party’s Department of Organizational Development.

Chen Ming-wen yesterday said that it took hard work to win an election and that he hoped every party member would roll up their sleeves and get to work. The party must win the elections, he said.

Tsai said she hoped the party and its candidates would appeal to voters with easy-to-understand language and ideas that everybody could identify with.
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