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DPP to announce its candidates for year-end elections

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will announce this week its candidate for the Yunlin County legislative by-election as well as its candidates for the year-end mayoral and commissioner elections, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), head of the party's nominating team, said yesterday.

Following Su's remarks, DPP Yunlin County Councilor Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) suspended his campaign activities and called on fellow party member, former Yunlin County deputy commissioner Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), to also halt his campaign and wait for party headquarters to make a final decision on who should represent it in the by-election.

The by-election is being held after the Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court on Tuesday annulled the election victory of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文). Chang was declared the winner of the regional legislative seat in Yunlin County in January last year, but his opponent at the time, Liu, accused him of vote-buying and filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election results.

Liu said he was glad to win the lawsuit and that he was willing to take over Chang's legislative seat.

Lee resigned as deputy commissioner shortly after the announcement of the annulment of last year's election.

Lee, who was leading a bike team around the county yesterday as part of his campaign, said the bicycle parade showed his determination to enter the race, but added that he would respect and obey the party's right to choose the candidate.

Su said yesterday the party was mulling asking DPP Legislator Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠) to enter the Chiayi county commissioner race.

Citing five recent polls conducted by the party, Su said Chang Hwa-kuan led the KMT's candidate — Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) — by 10 percent, suggesting a good chance of defeating Wong.

The party would support former Nantou County commissioner Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男) in the Nantou race, Su added.

Su said Lin, who withdrew from the DPP four years ago after losing the DPP Nantou commissioner primary to then DPP-nominee Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), could not rejoin the party for five years under DPP regulations.

As such, the DPP could only recommend him, but not nominate him as party candidate, Su said.
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