The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday announced that it would not nominate a candidate for next year’s presidential election.
The decision was reached by the party’s decisionmaking committee at a meeting earlier yesterday, NPP Secretary-General Wu Pei-yun (吳佩芸) told a news conference at party headquarters.
In the meeting, the committee also decided that the party’s priority in the upcoming general elections would be to maximize its legislative seats and to create a legislature that truly represents the public’s voice, she said.
Last week, the party issued a statement that it is drafting presidential nomination regulations and that it would prioritize enlisting NPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for the election.
The statement drew strong criticism from a number of decisionmaking committee members, who accused party headquarters of ignoring them in the decisionmaking process.
One of the committee members, Miaoli County Councilor Tseng Wen-hsueh (曾玟學), said that whether the party nominates a presidential candidate should first be discussed by the committee.
Meanwhile, Huang denied having any interest in running for president next year.
Asked to explain the shift from considering drafting Huang to not nominating any presidential candidate, Wu yesterday said that the NPP must be responsible to its supporters.
In the 2016 general elections, the NPP received 740,000, or 6.1 percent, of party votes, earning it the option of nominating its own candidate in the next presidential election, she said.
The votes meant that voters placed great hopes on the NPP, which must respond to such expectations, she added.
Asked who the NPP would support in the presidential election, Wu said that the party would discuss the issue at its national convention.
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