Registration for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primaries for November’s Kaohsiung and Tainan mayoral and Yilan and Chiayi county commissioner elections closed on Friday with 15 DPP members vying for the party’s nominations, DPP spokeswoman Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
Tainan, a traditional DPP stronghold, is expected to see the fiercest competition with six aspirants: DPP legislators Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津), Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), as well as former Tainan deputy mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左) and former DPP deputy secretary-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅).
Meanwhile, infighting has continued among the Tainan aspirants, with Lee accusing Huang of “engaging with corrupt politicians.”
Lee made the accusation at a news conference in front of the DPP’s Taipei headquarters on Friday.
Lee should not “go overboard for an election,” Huang said, adding that some of Lee’s allegations were fabricated.
In Kaohsiung, four DPP lawmakers — Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺), Choa Tien-lin (趙天麟), Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) and Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) — seek to represent the party for the Kaohsiung mayoral election after Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) candidate, DPP Legislator Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳), decided earlier this month not to participate in the primary.
In Yilan, DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) is to face Dongshan Township (東山) Mayor Hsieh Tsan-hui (謝燦輝) and Yuanshan Township (員山) Mayor Chiang Yung-ho (江永和) in the party primary.
The DPP said it expects to face an uphill battle in the Yilan county commissioner election.
In Chiayi, a showdown is expected between Chiayi County Council Speaker Chang Ming-ta (張明達) and former Council of Agriculture deputy minister Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁).
Chiayi County Government employees reportedly cannot wait for the primary to be over, with some saying that they were forced to “take sides” in the battle between Chang and Ong, who belong to Chiayi Commissioner Helen Chang’s (張花冠) and former Chiayi commissioner Chen Ming-wen’s (陳明文) camps respectively.
The DPP Central Executive Committee is to begin reviewing the aspirants’ qualifications on Wednesday next week, before holding televised sessions from Feb. 1 to Feb. 11, when the candidates can put forward their platforms to voters, Wu said.
The DPP plans to conduct opinion polls from March 5 to March 9 before announcing its nominees on March 14.
If no one is willing to withdraw from the primary before the end of negotiations on Jan. 30, the candidates would be decided by DPP headquarters through the opinion poll results, she said.
The Central Election Commission on Tuesday said that this year’s nine-in-one elections are to take place on Nov. 24.
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