Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should run in the year-end special municipality elections, DPP councilors in Taipei County said yesterday.
While Tsai has so far denied any interest in taking part in the November election, a poll released yesterday by county councilors showed they thought Tsai represented the DPP’s best chance of taking back the strategically important county.
Party officials said that a win in either Sinbei City — as Taipei County will be known after the elections — or Taipei City would give the DPP a big boost in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. The party hopes to gain at least three of the five municipal seats up for grabs.
The results of the poll showed support for Tsai at 35.9 percent, leading former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃, 13.5 percent) and DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全, 10.1 percent.)
While Yu has openly declared his intention to vie for the DPP’s nomination, Su has so far shown little interest. He is also head of the team charged with selecting party candidates for Taipei, Sinbei and Greater Taichung.
“We have decided to try our best to convince Tsai to run,” Taipei County DPP caucus whip Lee Yo-cheen (李友親) said, adding that a strong contender would increase councilors’ chances of winning re-election.
Lee was behind a failed attempt by DPP councilors to persuade former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to run as a candidate for Sinbei City last month.
He previously said that Su, a former Taipei County commissioner, was best suited to lead the party and go head-to-head with Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) frontrunner.
However, even if Tsai chooses to run against Chu, the vice premier currently enjoys a 7.5-point lead over the DPP chairperson. A DPP poll showed Chu with a support rate of 46.3 percent compared with 38.8 percent for Tsai.
Meanwhile, if an election between Yu and Chu were to take place tomorrow, Chu would win 56.2 percent to Yu’s 29.6 percent.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, DPP Spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said that Tsai Ing-wen’s main focus at the moment was running the party and working to further its long-term interests.
DPP candidates for Taipei, Sinbei and Greater Taichung will be selected by the party’s nomination team. Party polls will be used in Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan.
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