The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) yesterday rebutted a report by a local TV station that said the party would team up with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the upcoming legislative by-election in Taipei City.
The by-election, scheduled for March 28, will be held to fill the post left vacant by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), who resigned from the seat last month over a dual-citizenship controversy.
“TVBS said on [Wednesday’s] morning news that as the DPP has little chance of winning the by-election, it would use a ‘surprise strategy’ by naming a Caucasian candidate [Robin Winkler, a naturalized Taiwanese who gave up his US citizenship in 2003]” GPT secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) told the Taipei Times.
Pan said politicking may have been behind the false report.
Winkler on Monday announced his bid for nomination as the party’s candidate for the legislative seat. The party has three potential candidates — Winkler, GPT founding member Chang Shu-mei (張淑玫) and himself — Pan said, adding that party members had yet to decide which candidate would be named to represent the party.
Winkler said that TVBS on Monday sent a reporter to party headquarters and interviewed him for an hour and a half, asking him about his background and why he had given up his US citizenship.
“So they are very aware that I represent the GPT and have been in GPT for more than three years, yet the station still said that the DPP is naming a foreigner candidate,” he said
While saying that the party had no immediate plan to team up with other political parties, Pan said yesterday that the GPT did not rule out collaborating with other political parties — including the KMT — if the latter proposed policies that dovetailed with those of the GPT.
Meanwhile, KMT Taipei City Councilor Ouyang Lung (歐陽龍) yesterday announced his withdrawal from the party’s primary for the legislative by-election, meaning that the race now involves six members.
Five KMT Taipei City councilors from Daan (大安) and Wenshan (文山) districts, including Chiang Nai-shin (蔣乃辛), Ching Li-fang (秦儷舫), Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元), Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) and Lee Shin (李新), as well as KMT Taipei branch deputy-director Lu Li-li (呂麗莉), will join the primary on Sunday.
The KMT will conduct opinion polls tomorrow and on Saturday, and hold a vote on Sunday. The final result will be determined by a combination of the polls and the vote, with the poll results accounting for 70 percent and the vote accounting for 30 percent.
Ouyang, who had topped the polls during the primary for the Taipei city councilor election, said he was endorsing Chiang, a veteran councilor in the election districts.
“I think the pan-blue camp should select a candidate who can represent the party’s spirit. Councilor Chiang has been a model councilor and I believe he would be a great legislator,” he said at the Taipei City Council.
Chiang was recommended by the party’s Taipei City Council caucus and is seen as having a good chance of winning the primary.
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