The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday vowed to garner five to seven seats in next year’s legislative elections, while accusing the People First Party (PFP) of being an “accomplice” of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying that it should not be counted as one of Taiwan’s “third force” political parties.
“The objective of the NPP is to play a key role in reforming the Legislative Yuan and we are willing to work with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], which might become the largest party in the legislature, and to assist DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reform proposals,” NPP party-building taskforce captain and Academia Sinica research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said at a fundraising luncheon for the party. “As for the legislative election, we’re looking to take five to seven seats.”
However, when commenting on the DPP’s willingness to work with the PFP for seats in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts, as well as the PFP’s ambition to benefit from the rise of the alternative political force, Huang said that the PFP should not be considered as a third force political party.
PHOTO: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“PFP and KMT lawmakers often share their support or opposition to the same bills. The PFP is an accomplice of President Ma Ying-jeou’s [馬英九] administration, and should not be considered an alternative political party,” Huang said.
Asked if he would run in the legislative election, Huang said that he “has not ruled out any possibility at this time,” but added that his main objective now was to help the NPP win as many votes as possible, and to garner more than 10 percent of legislator-at-large ballots.
“It’s not that important whether I get elected to a legislative seat,” Huang said.
In other constituencies, the NPP’s nominee for New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) Neil Peng (馮光遠) said that he is willing to negotiate with DPP candidate Lu Sun-ling (呂孫綾) over the seat, however, he said the final candidate should be decided by opinion poll.
The NPP candidate for Hsinchu City, Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), on the other hand, said he would not yield if the DPP nominates its caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) for the constituency, as Ker has always been involved in murky politics.
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