Former premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said he would neither quit the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nor take legal action if the party changes the rules on its primary elections.
Lai and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are seeking the party’s nomination for next year’s presidential election.
Despite announcing the primary dates and rules on March 14, the DPP Central Executive Committee has since postponed the timeframe for concluding the primary and has yet to finalize dates and rules for public opinion poll portions of the primary, despite a five-member arbitration team created by the party headquarters “to find common ground” between Lai and Tsai.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Responding to an unnamed academic’s predictions that Lai might run as an independent if he does not receive the DPP’s nomination, the former Tainan mayor said in an online interview with Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明): “No, and absolutely not.”
Such speculation might have been fueled because discussions about the DPP primary have been going on for more than two months and the public is growing impatient, he told Peng.
“As a result, all kinds of possibilities are being proposed,” he said.
While he hopes the DPP would not change its rules, as doing so after the registration period would not only damage the party, but might cause the public to lose faith in its primary process and make it difficult for the DPP to win the election, he would not quit the party to run as an independent, Lai said.
He is not planning to take legal action either, he said.
Lai told Peng that he loves the DPP dearly and would not attack it when its reputation is already being damaged by the changes involving the primary.
Efforts by Tsai’s camp to get him to run as vice president on a ticket with Tsai were bad for the “overall spirit of the primary,” he said.
The interview was open to questions from online viewers, and one person asked why Lai insisted on not running with Tsai.
The DPP primary is already underway, and according to the DPP’s custom, the selected candidate chooses their own running mate, he said.
As the idea of a Tsai-Lai ticket might be a campaign tactic, he and Tsai should see the primary through to the end and accept its results, he added.
The DPP Central Executive Committee is scheduled to continue discussions on the primary tomorrow, including proposals by Tsai’s camp to divide the poll equally between landlines and cellphones and to use Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as a potential rival, and a proposal by Lai’s camp to include Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) as a potential rival.
In response to suggestions that Lai could take legal action if the DPP were to change the primary rules, Taipei City Councilor Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄), a spokesman for Tsai’s camp, said the committee’s decision would be in line with DPP regulations.
“Unnecessary, external forces” should not be allowed to damage the DPP’s democracy, he said.
Tsai respects the party’s democratic mechanisms and is awaiting the committee’s decision, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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