The son of imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) registered his candidacy for the Jan. 14 legislative elections yesterday.
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), an independent since his withdrawal from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in June last year, is running for the legislative seat in the ninth district of Greater Kaohsiung.
Accompanied by a large group of supporters, Chen said his participation in the race was aimed at securing the pan-green camp’s hold on the seat.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
He said he would compete fairly with DPP candidate Kuo Wen-chen (郭玟成) and “leave the choice to voters.”
Chen lost his post on the Kaohsiung City Council in August after he was convicted of perjury in a corruption case involving his parents. On Thursday last week, he completed 546 hours of community service in lieu of his three-month prison sentence.
Also yesterday, the nine DPP candidates in Kaohsiung registered their candidacies in the company of Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).
The mayor said she respected Chen Chih-chung’s right to join the election.
She said the DPP would unite to win all nine seats in Kaohsiung to meet supporters’ expectations.
Noting that the DPP garnered 52 percent of the votes in last year’s Kaohsiung mayoral election, the mayor said the excellent performance of her administration serves as an endorsement for the party’s legislative candidates.
Meanwhile, three Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates in Kaohsiung, Chiang Ling-chun (江玲君), Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) and Chiu Yu-hsuan (邱于軒), completed the registration process in the company of former Kaohsiung County commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興).
Yang, a former DPP member who broke ranks with the party to run against Chen Chu in last November’s mayoral race, has shifted his support to the KMT.
Two other KMT candidates in Kaohsiung, Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳), also registered.
In New Taipei City (新北市), DPP candidates Kao Chien-chih (高建智), Hsu Yu-ming (許又銘), Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢), Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) and Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) registered for the elections dressed as the English outlaw Robin Hood.
Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), chief of the DPP’s New Taipei City branch, said the party is taking a center-left political stance and is standing by disadvantaged people at the grassroots level.
In this sense, the spirit of Robin Hood matches perfectly with the DPP’s stance, Wu said.
In Changhua County, Huang Hsiu-fang (黃秀芳), Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁), Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) and Chiang Chao-yi (江昭儀) of the DPP and Lin Chang-min (林滄敏), Wang Hui-mei (王惠美), Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田) and Cheng Ju-fen (鄭汝芬) of the KMT also completed their registrations.
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