Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday denied that he had reached a deal with Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co general manager Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to make Han his highest-ranking deputy mayor on the condition that he quit his post.
During a Taipei City Council question-and-answer session, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chang Mao-nan (張茂楠) asked Ko about a news report that he promised to give Han Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi’s (鄧家基) job and that Ko was seeking to recruit Han as a strategist for his re-election campaign.
“It is impossible. All three deputy mayors are still active,” Ko said.
He said he had asked Han to fill the position vacated by his former adviser, Chang Yi-san (張益贍), and not a deputy mayor post.
However, Chang Mao-nan said that Han had told several people that he will be Taipei deputy mayor.
Ko denied having offered Han the job, saying: “He was probably drunk. How else could he have said such a thing?”
When asked to comment on Han’s role in the company’s unresolved personnel issues, including a delayed election for company president and possible nomination of a new general manager, Ko said: “It has nothing to do with him, but the people behind him. I will give an account to the [DPP’s] New Tide faction.”
The company’s personnel issues reportedly involves a three-way power struggle between Ko, the Council of Agriculture and directors affiliated with former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), who has influence over the firm due to his close ties with farmers in central Taiwan who supply produce to the company.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠) asked Ko to explain what he would tell the New Tide faction and whether the nominee for general manager favored by the faction was DPP Secretariat Director Chiang Yu-lin (蔣玉琳).
Ko said that he had promised the New Tide faction that directors appointed by the city government would not be swayed in the firm’s presidential election and that Chiang was “initially” the nominee backed by the DPP.
Asked whether the city nominated Lin Chiu-hui (林秋慧) because Lin was favored by the New Tide faction, Ko did not give a clear answer.
Chin accused Ko of degrading himself to the status of a “sidekick” for the New Tide faction.
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