Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate and Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has confirmed she will meet her former rival for the nomination, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), as they seek to mend their differences before the presidential campaign.
The talks will be the first between the two since Tsai defeated Su by a razor-thin margin in the primaries last month.
The two are expected to share ideas on how they plan to consolidate their efforts at the meeting, while Su added that “anything is up for discussion.”
Sources from both camps said the meeting would take place sometime before Friday, although the exact date and time has not yet been finalized.
Su’s camp said it was still waiting for the final word from Tsai’s side before they confirmed the date.
The discussions are expected to be watched closely for any sign of cooperation, with Tsai soon expected to extend employment offers to several of Su’s leading staffers, who were responsible for his failed campaign for the Taipei mayorship.
“The topics will include how we can best organize our party’s campaigning abilities from now until the presidential and legislative elections,” Tsai said during a campaign stop in Changhua County yesterday, adding that the talks would also include issues of party support and public policies.
Tsai spent the past week visiting senior party politicians, including former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) in an effort to build support before she heads into the general election.
She is expected to officially establish her campaign office in July.
Confirmation of the the meeting with Su comes just days after media reports disclosed information about secret talks held between Tsai and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), fueling rumors that Perng is in consideration to be Tsai’s running mate.
While both have rejected the speculation — calling the meeting a “routine gathering” between old friends — questions have now turned to how news of the closed-door, unpublicized meeting was revealed.
Tsai has denied that her campaign was behind the leak, while reports have claimed that Perng was supposedly seen by eyewitnesses in the lobby of Tsai’s residence in Taipei, where witnesses say Tsai waited to greet the governor.
A former DPP legislator said on Friday that Tsai was being followed, possibly by the government.
Refusing to speculate on the rumors, Tsai said “the person who leaked the information would be the most clear on this.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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