Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday remained mum on reports that former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) could announce a presidential bid on March 6, the day after two legislative by-elections in the south.
Quoting senior party officials, a report in the Chinese-language China Times also said DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), could soon follow suit and would likely make an announcement next month as well.
The party yesterday refused to comment on the speculation.
However, the China Times has been right in the past, correctly forecasting Tsai’s announcement of her mayoral run in New Taipei City (新北市) last year.
The speculation, comes as party officials confirmed the presidential nominations would be concluded in April at the latest, despite earlier comments that senior officials wanted to see the process wrapped up by next month.
The specifics are expected to be hammered out at a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee on Feb. 23 and would take into consideration the legal challenge filed against the DPP’s revised nomination procedures, party spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
The challenge by former presidential office secretary-general Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) says that using just telephone polls to settle the party nominations violates the DPP charter.
The China Times report said that Su, who failed in his bid to become Taipei City mayor in November, would use an upcoming nine-day video and book tour as a warm-up for his announcement, which would take place on the last day, a Sunday.
The date, the report said, was decided on in order to prevent the announcement from overshadowing the two legislative by-elections in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung, where the DPP is fielding two strong contenders, including former Tainan mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財).
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