The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday thanked supporters for backing its legislative candidates and said that it “will not be absent” in the 2022 local elections for city mayors and county commissioners.
The party was touring Taipei and New Taipei City to thank supporters for helping it secure legislator-at-large seats for Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華), Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and Claire Wang (王婉諭) with 1,098,100, or 7.75 percent, of the political party vote.
While NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who was ranked fourth on the party’s legislator-at-large nominee list, did not win a seat, NPP Chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said that the former NPP chairman would continue to play a crucial role in the party.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Asked what the NPP’s next step would be and whether Huang would consider running for Taipei mayor in 2022, Hsu said the party aims to increase its influence at the legislative and local levels.
“The NPP will not be absent in the city mayor and county councilor elections,” he told reporters at the NPP’s headquarters before embarking on the tour.
In the local elections on Nov. 24, 2018, the party won 16 city and county councilor seats, he said, adding: “We hope to not only double, but triple that number.”
Meanwhile, Huang said: “It is too early to talk about 2022.”
“We are in 2020 and should be dealing with the problems Taiwan is facing now,” he said.
As the NPP also reached the 5 percent threshold to nominate its own candidate in the 2024 presidential election, the party would “cherish that right,” Hsu said.
He said that his plan to return to teaching after completing his term as legislator at the end of the month remains unchanged, and has already planned his classes.
The NPP’s future and the next chairperson would be determined by the party’s decisionmaking committee, he added.
Huang said that although he is not a member of the committee, he hopes that Hsu will continue to serve as chairman until the end of his term.
“As a party member I strongly hope that Yang-ming will continue to lead us,“ he said.
Hsu became chairman last year when the NPP was having a difficult time, and under his leadership the party became stronger, Huang added.
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