After Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting’s (陳為廷) withdrawal from the Miaoli County legislative by-election on Thursday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it is likely to nominate its own candidate, although it could still support a candidate endorsed by civic groups.
“For the legislative by-election of Miaoli County’s second electoral district, the DPP will follow the conclusions of the Campaign Strategy Committee yesterday [Thursday] when selecting a candidate to endorse,” DPP spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
“That is, if civic groups would like to endorse a suitable candidate, the DPP would work with the candidate and set up an appropriate platform for the candidate’s election, or, in the case that civic groups do not endorse a candidate, the DPP will nominate its own candidate,” Hsu said.
“We will make a final decision on fielding a candidate at the Central Election Commission meeting on Wednesday next week,” Hsu added.
Although Hsu said that the DPP is yet to decide whether to support a candidate endorsed by civic groups or nominate its own, DPP Department of Youth Affairs director Fu Wei-che (傅偉哲) yesterday said that he has already moved his household registration from the first electoral district to the second at the request of the party to be prepared to run.
Fu, a 26-year-old National Tsing Hua University student, has been a longtime partner of Chen’s in social movements in Miaoli and took over as DPP youth affairs director in May.
DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), a native of Miaoli, on the other hand said that she would yield the opportunity to a better-qualified person, even though many people within the party, including DPP Miaoli Chapter director Lee Kui-fu (李貴富), are trying to persuade her to run.
Initially, the DPP decided to throw its support behind Chen, who announced his by-election bid earlier this month.
In an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Tuesday, Chen revealed that he had been involved in two sexual harassment cases when he was at college.
Chen then decided to drop out of the race on Thursday after a third sexual harassment case surfaced earlier that day.
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