Any new legislative district candidates announced by the New Power Party (NPP) will not actively campaign for their own election, NPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday, saying that there were not enough open legislative districts available for the party to run 10 competitive legislative candidates.
“The registration of our second wave of candidates will be to fulfill legal requirements. The candidates will not campaign for votes for themselves in the districts, instead helping the NPP gain more votes on the party ballot. Specifically, the candidates will not establish personal campaign offices and will not have their own personal campaign promotional materials,” Huang said.
“Friendly parties” should not be nervous when the list comes out because the party will not seek to “break solidarity” with or “undercut” their candidates, he said.
The additional district candidates could be viewed as a “stopgap” because under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), parties are required to nominate at least 10 to be eligible to receive at-large legislative seats based on the general party ballot, he said.
While the party would like for all of its district candidates to be fully competitive, it was not clear where it would be able to find open districts, he said.
He ruled out joining forces with the Green-Social Democratic Party Alliance (Green-SDP), saying that doing so would influence poll figures in districts contested by both Green-SDP and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidates.
Previous efforts to integrate the parties have failed, with Huang citing the NPP’s support of DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The NPP has coordinated closely with the DPP in fielding its current slate of six district candidates, with the DPP choosing not to nominate candidates in a number of districts, instead endorsing the NPP candidate.
Party candidates in New Taipei City and Hsinchu City still face competition from DPP candidates, while one candidate in Taichung faces competition from a former Taiwan Solidarity Union city councilor.
Huang reiterated that the party would “do its best” to “integrate” pan-green candidates in the remaining contested districts.
He said that the party governing committee itself would nominate a slate of eight at-large legislative candidates.
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