The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said it would conduct polls on April 14 to finalize the candidates for the year-end special municipality elections.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will visit Tainan to start negotiations with prospective nominees. He said all hopefuls should make their intention to run known to the party in order to be included.
“I don’t have any preferred candidates in mind. The KMT will include all hopefuls in the polls,” he said.
The polls will serve as the major index for the KMT to finalize its candidates. However, the party will have a second round of negotiations if it fails to decide upon candidates via polls.
The KMT has been having difficulties choosing a candidate in Tainan since Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) rejected King’s invitation to run.
King said the party has not given up on Wu running, and added that a split in the pan-green camp in Tainan would be to the KMT’s advantage.
In the Taichung area, incumbent Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), Taichung County Council Deputy Speaker Chang Chuang-hsi (張壯熙) and KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) intend to run.
As for Greater Kaohsiung, former Taipei City Department of Labor Affairs commissioner Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) and KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) will be competing in the polls.
The situation in Taipei and Sinbei City (新北市), the upgraded Taipei County, is less complicated, as Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) are expected to run in the two constituencies, respectively.
In related news, Hau yesterday said Taipei City would hold local borough chief elections on the same day as the special municipality elections to simplify the election procedure and save money.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday it plans to hold two conferences next month to give its prospective candidates in Tainan and Kaohsiung a chance to discuss their policies.
Political infighting in the two races have been especially problematic over the past few weeks for the party, as a merger between counties and cities in those areas following the year-end special municipality elections will halve the amount of elected representatives.
Currently, the DPP administrators in the four cities and counties in Tainan and Kaohsiung have expressed their intentions to run for the party’s nominations in the area.
The proposal to hold the two conferences was reportedly agreed upon by DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during a visit over the weekend to the area in an effort to calm tensions.
“The proposal to hold the conferences came from our candidates ... Tsai thought it was a good idea and would increase public recognition [of DPP candidates],” DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said yesterday.
According to local news reports, both Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) have agreed to take part in the conference.
In the Tainan nomination race, four of the DPP’s prospective candidates have also expressed support for the measure while Tainan City Mayor Hsu Tain-tsai (?]) said he would prefer a question-and-answer session instead.
The DPP plans to make a final decision on its nominations for the December elections in Kaohsiung and Tainan by May 19, five days after it completes its opinion polls.
The nomination team has threatened to accelerate the process in response to any further infighting.
In related news, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), could be planning to make a run for Kaohsiung City councilor as an independent candidate, it was reported yesterday.
Sources close to the detained former president said Chen Chih-chung is choosing to run as an independent instead of a DPP candidate to avoid any possible conflicts with the party’s anti-corruption clause.
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