With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continuing their long-running blue-green political division, the People First Party (PFP) is expected to gain from their discord and emerge as a formidable party in next year’s legislative election.
Given the KMT’s landslide defeat in last year’s nine-in-one elections and the emergence of smaller parties, several political analysts believe January’s legislative election is likely to fill the legislature with lawmakers nominated by too many parties to leave any of them in control of a majority of seats.
It is widely expected that the PFP, which currently holds two seats in the 113-seat legislature, is to benefit the most from the circumstances as its candidates are likely to absorb votes from some pan-blue supporters.
PFP spokesman Clarence Wu (吳崑玉) recently said that the party’s top priority is to seize as many legislator-at-large seats as possible.
“Our primary election appeal is to cast aside blue-green divisions and the issues of Taiwanese independence and cross-strait unification. We want to target the core problems at home, to truly ‘govern’ the nation,” Wu said.
The party has recruited PFP Deputy Secretary-General Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and Taipei City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) to run for district legislative seats in Keelung City and Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts respectively.
Former PFP legislator Chen Chao-jung (陳朝容) has been chosen by the party to compete for a similar seat in Changhua County’s third electoral district, while media veteran Hector Kang (康仁俊) is to represent the party in vying for a legislative seat in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).
Though PFP Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) has yet to be formally recruited by the party for next year’s election, she is said to be eyeing Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Datong (大同) districts.
According to a PFP member, who requested anonymity, also on the party’s list of potential candidates for legislative seats are former PFP Aboriginal lawmaker Lin Cheng-er’s (林正二) daughter, and former KMT legislator Hsu Shu-po’s (許舒博) elder brother, Hsu Shu-hsiang (許舒翔), who also serves as the principal of the TransWorld University principal.
“The party has also reached an agreement with independent legislator Chen Hsuen-sheng (陳雪生) to rejoin the PFP should the KMT lose next year’s presidential election,” the member said.
Wu said last year’s nine-in-one election results were indicators of the public’s detestation of blue-green discords and that many KMT members’ insistence on maintaining the same cliche for their campaign strategies would only drive more supporters away and into the arms of other parties.
“The PFP will appeal to voters by tabling concrete policies. As the head of a center-left party, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) is profoundly influenced by former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and is passionate about addressing the widening poverty gap,” Wu said.
Wu said that to be eligible for the party’s nominations for the legislative election, one must be equipped with the ability to address the dire problem of disparity between the rich and the poor, and to take care of the “three middles and one young” — small and medium-sized enterprises, middle-class citizens, middle and lower income families and the younger generations.
He said that the PFP’s largest political advantage lies in the public’s utter disappointment in the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as well as its distrust of the DPP.
Liu said Huang and himself are the PFP’s strongest candidates for district legislative seats thus far.
“None of the KMT’s potential candidates in Keelung are strong competitors, neither is the DPP’s candidate, Keelung City Councilor Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應). While the incumbent Keelung mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) is a DPP member, he has failed to make any remarkable achievements since his election last December,” Liu said.
Liu said given the collaboration between the PFP and the DPP in the Neihu and Nangang districts, and that voters now view the KMT unfavorably, Huang stands a good chance of beating her KMT rival, Taipei City Councilor Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀).
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