Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday announced the party’s list of legislator-at-large candidates, saying the list shows the party’s readiness to take over the responsibilities of a governing party.
“Society has more expectations of us this time, and we have more space as well, so we wanted to demonstrate a different way of thinking,” Wu said after members of the DPP Central Executive Committee agreed on the final list of legislator-at-large candidates.
“Candidates on the ‘safe’ list represent a variety of social issues: food safety; environmental protection; social welfare; healthcare; long-term care; finance and pension reform; youth entrepreneurship; agriculture; labor; Aboriginal matters; Hakka matters; culture; education; gender; children and juvenile rights; human rights; judicial reform; and transitional justice,” Wu said.
“These are the issues that the public is most concerned about, and in the future, we will depend on these legislators to push for reform and progress in their respective fields,” he added.
The party estimated that it might receive enough ballots to secure seats in the legislature for the first 16 people on the list of 34.
The top 16 candidates on the list include National Taiwan University College of Public Health associate professor Wu Kun-yuh (吳焜裕), who ranked first; Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly secretary-general Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴); long-time environmentalist Chen Man-li (陳曼麗); Taiwan Rural Front secretary-general Frida Tsai (蔡培慧); Alliance for Handicapped People secretary-general Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋); and Taoyuan Department of Indigenous Affairs Director-General Kolas Yotaka.
Incumbent legislators-at-large — such as Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君), Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) — were also on the “safe list.”
“The list shows that we are ready to take on the responsibilities of a governing party, as well as our drive to expand our support in society,” Joseph Wu said. “I would like to extend my gratitude for the passage of the list, and I hope that all will support it so we can improve our representation and capability in the legislature.”
Many veteran lawmakers and elected officials were omitted from the list, because the party wanted to recruit more new blood, DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) quoted Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who was a member of the nomination committee, as saying.
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