Democratic Progressive Party Legislator William Lai (賴清德) is set to represent the party in the year-end Greater Tainan municipality mayoral election after beating his rivals in a public opinion survey, DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said yesterday.
Lai won with an average approval rating of 44.28 percent compared with Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair’s (許添財) 32.6 percent in three public opinion surveys held by the DPP, Su said announcing the poll results.
Other hopefuls for the municipality, which will be a merger of Tainan City and Tainan County, included incumbent Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), and legislators Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) and Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅).
Su Huan-chih received 18.89 percent in the poll, while Lee rated 2.35 percent and Yeh 1.79 percent.
Su said the DPP appreciated Hsu and Su Huan-chih’s work in Tainan City and Tainan County and that the party enjoys good support in the Tainan area thanks to them.
After the survey results are confirmed by all five hopefuls, the DPP’s election committee will file a formal report with the DPP’s Central Executive Committee on May 19, which will then finalize Lai’s nomination, Su Jia-chyuan said.
The results came two days after Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) won DPP opinion polls for the Greater Kaohsiung municipality election, finishing ahead of Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興).
The DPP candidates for the remaining three municipalities — Taipei City, Xinbei City and Greater Taichung — will be selected by the party without public opinion polls, Su Jia-chyuan said.
Lai yesterday thanked voters and said he appreciated the four other candidates behavior during the primary. Lai said he will continue soliciting support from his party colleagues and tap into their ideas for the new municipality.
Lai said he has already phoned former Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山), who has agreed to help him integrate local factions in the municipality and to serve as his adviser if he is elected mayor.
Asked whether he will resign from his post as legislator, Lai said that will be decided by the party.
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) last month threw his support behind Hsu, who yesterday said he needed time to digest the results.
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