Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has instructed party members to stop speculating on mayoral candidates for five new special municipalities, DPP spokeswoman Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said.
“Tsai is furious at mounting speculation over the party’s candidates for the five municipality mayoral elections at this critical moment when the party is fighting uphill battles in three counties to win legislative seats,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao made the remarks after former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), a senior DPP member, said the party should handle nominations for the next presidential election separately from those for the year-end mayoral elections.
In an interview with a Chinese-language newspaper on Tuesday, Lu said that DPP members intending to run in the 2012 presidential election should not vie for the party’s nominations for the five municipal elections, citing former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) “double electoral setback.”
“Hsieh’s showing in the 2008 presidential election was even worse than his failed Taipei mayoral race in late 2006,” Lu said, adding that the DPP should learn lessons from the experience.
Lu denied that her remarks were targeting former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) or Tsai, who are being touted as possible candidates for the Taipei City and Sinbei City (新北市, currently Taipei County) mayoral elections.
Hsiao said that Tsai hoped all party members would exercise self-restraint and stop speculating on candidacy issues, and concentrate instead on helping the party win three legislative by-elections this weekend.
Noting that none of the electorates — Taoyuan, Taichung and Taitung counties — is a DPP stronghold, Hsiao said party officials and rank-and-file members should work in concert to get their candidates into the legislature.
With days to go before the polls, Tsai and other top DPP politicians traveled around the three counties on Tuesday stumping for the party’s candidates.
The by-elections in Taoyuan and Taichung counties were triggered after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) and Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) were convicted of vote-buying.
The Taitung by-election will fill the seat left by former KMT legislator Justin Huang (黃健庭), who resigned in October to run for Taitung County commissioner. He won that contest.
Hsiao said the key for the DPP in the by-elections would be supporter turnout, particularly younger voters resident elsewhere who return home to express their dissatisfaction with KMT rule.
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