Despite a wide lead in opinion polls, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday kept a low profile as she sent her office secretary to complete her registration for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nomination process for the year-end special municipality elections.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), who has also announced his interest in running in the Greater Kaohsiung election, is expected to complete his registration and hand in the NT$1.7 million (US$53,000) registration fee today.
The party’s nine-member nomination team that met yesterday has been struggling to prevent a potential conflict between Chen and Yang, as well as other party contenders in Sinbei and Tainan cities.
DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said a set of newly published regulations could prevent all forms of “negative attacks” between party candidates. Any violation of the rule could result in the team pushing the nomination timetable forward to avoid political attacks from further damaging the party’s image, Su said.
The party is expected to release its list of candidates by May 19.
The nomination team also announced a rule barring candidates from being nominated for both mayor and city councilor.
It said it would also be “scouting for talent” and prospective candidates to represent the party in addition to those already registered.
The rules could be a potential stumbling block for some DPP city councilors who have already expressed an interest in running for mayor in the year-end election. Five-term DPP Taipei City councilor Chou Po-ya (周柏雅), who on Monday announced he would be contesting for the Taipei mayor position, is one of them.
“Any city councilor seeking the party’s nomination for mayor must sign a contract declaring that he or she will not run again for councilor,” Su said, adding that the rules were to prevent potential nominees from using a failed bid for mayor as a springboard for a councilor campaign.
Su said that to ensure that the DPP kept all its options open before the elections, the nomination team would expand its search for candidates even if they have not registered.
Despite calls by Sinbei City contender You Ching (尤清) for the nomination team to take campaign platforms into account and hold a televised debate between candidates, Su said the team’s decision would be made based on public polls, the opinions of party branch officials and city councilors.
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