Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) yesterday suggested the party conduct a poll to choose a candidate for the Tainan County commissioner election in December to avoid dividing its supporters.
On April 1, the DPP selected DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) as its candidate for the election, but former minister of foreign affairs and Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山) said he would also enter the race.
CHEN SHUI-BIAN
Luo yesterday said he had approached DPP legislators seek support for a new poll to select the party’s candidate.
“I suggested that no matter who wins the poll and represents the party in the election, that person should not invite former president Chen Shui-bian [陳水扁] to campaign on his behalf,” Luo said.
While the party should continue to call for a fair trial for Chen Shui-bian, it should limit his involvement in party affairs.
Luo said many DPP members were concerned that Mark Chen and Lee would split the vote in Tainan County, allowing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate to win the commissioner’s seat.
IN FAVOR
Mark Chen told reporters yesterday that he supported a new poll to select the party’s candidate and believed that he would win such a poll, but he opposed the idea of not allowing the former president to participate in the campaign.
Mark Chen, who is seen as close to the former president, has accused the DPP of denying him the nomination because the party wants to distance itself from Chen Shui-bian, and he has called this undemocratic.
Previous polls conducted by media outlets and local party chapters in the county showed Mark Chen to be the preferred candidate. However, the DPP headquarters’ decision was not based on those results.
Lee said yesterday: “Luo’s proposal would not resolve the problem but would make it more complicated.”
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the party would consider the suggestions of Luo and other members.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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