Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said his plan to run in Taipei City on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket remains unchanged despite talks from former presidential advisor Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) asking him to reconsider.
Koo ran a half-page advertisement yesterday in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) calling on Su to drop his bid in Taipei City and instead run in Sinbei City — Taipei County’s name once it is upgraded — against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Vice-Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫).
“Taipei County residents elected him to two terms as Taipei County Commissioner. Su is best positioned to understand the problems of these people and as a politician, he has a responsibility to step up when people need him to,” Koo said in a press conference yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
Left unsaid was that Su also holds the DPP’s best chances going up against Chu, who is also riding high in opinion polls according to surveys, released in March. In the same ad, Koo also called on DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to run in Taipei City against incumbent KMT mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
However, the requests were firmly rebuffed by Su who said in a separate setting yesterday that he had decided to run in Taipei City since March 3, the date he first publicly announced his candidacy.
While Tsai did not make a public comment on the issue, she has said previously that she did not plan on taking part in the special municipality elections in November.
Despite having already selected its candidates for Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, the DPP has yet to finalize its list for Taipei and Sinbei as well as Greater Taichung. The nomination list is expected to be released Wednesday next week but party officials added the date could be pushed back if the team were unable to come to a conclusion.
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