The son of imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) questioned Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) “impartiality” yesterday because of her campaigning for a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidate instead of him, an independent.
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), a candidate in Saturday’s legislative election in Greater Kaohsiung’s Ninth Constituency, wrote on his Facebook page about Chen Chu publicly supporting his rival, Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成), who is representing Chen Chu’s party, the DPP.
According to Chen Chih-chung, some DPP members who “had been taken care of” by his father in the past seemed to have forgotten all the favors they had received from the ex-president, who is serving a jail term for corruption.
“They are not only forgetting, they are trying to cut themselves clear from the Chen [Shui-bian] family,” he wrote.
Chen Chih-chung and Kuo are fighting for votes from “pan-green camp” supporters in the constituency in a run against Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
He appealed to supporters for their votes, saying that he is well-educated and equipped with a young person’s explosive strength.
Most importantly, he said, he shoulders “tremendous responsibility” for “seeking justice.”
Kuo responded with a news conference, saying he was determined to win and carry out the task the DPP has given him.
Kuo called for DPP supporters not to blur the distinction between tears and sympathy and making the right choice.
“If our judgement is blurred, we will only let the KMT win,” he said.
Chen Chih-chung’s mother, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), uttered a similar criticism yesterday, saying that her husband’s efforts to “promote” so many people in the past had all gone down the drain.
Speaking after her mother’s funeral in Greater Tainan, Wu said it would have been impossible for Chen Chu to be elected in 2006 as Kaohsiung mayor without her husband’s help.
Meanwhile, Chen Chu said that as a DPP member, she must respect the party’s system and it was her responsibility to stump for DPP candidates.
Chen Chih-chung quit the DPP in 2010 to run for a then-Kaohsiung City councilor seat as an independent.
He won, but he was stripped of his seat last year after he was sentenced to a three-month jail term for perjury in a money-laundering case involving his father, mother, sister and his wife.
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