Mon, Apr 05, 2004 page3

• DPP sharpening its swords with eye on legislative elections

  • By Chang Yun-ping / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) election victory has given the pan-green camp a strong energy injection, which is expected to improve its chances in the legislative elections in December.

  After clinching a narrow victory in the presidential poll with 50.11 percent of the votes, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has started to sharpen its swords for the next legislative election with the goal of becoming the majority in the Legislature.

  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance is still mired in post-election protests, which is preventing the blue camp from preparing to face an imminent battle.

  DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said yesterday that the continuing protests by the KMT and PFP will deepen the conflicts between the two parties, which would benefit the DPP if it were to pursue an aligned strategy with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), independent lawmakers and the "localization" force within the KMT.

  This joint strategy will take the form of a "legislative majority alliance," proposed by Chen in his campaign platform.

  However, to form an effective majority alliance with other strategic partners, the party has to tackle a balanced nomination of lawmakers, taking care not to crowd out the candidates of other parties.

  "Currently the most important yet difficult task for the DPP is to efficiently coordinate with the TSU, independent lawmakers and `pro-localization' lawmakers within the KMT to achieve an `accurate nomination' in order to win more than half of the overall legislative seats," Lee said.

  DPP legislative caucus whip Tsai Huang-lang (蔡煌瑯) said by forming a legislative majority alliance, the party aims to compose a stable alliance that could exceed half of the total number of legislative seats by a strong margin.

  The Legislature currently has a total of 225 seats, with the DPP occupying 87 and the TSU 12. The remaining 126 seats are occupied by the KMT-PFP alliance and independent lawmakers.

  DPP legislative caucus whip Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said the ideal number of seats for such a stable alliance is 135, in which the DPP hopes to garner 100 seats and the TSU 15 to 20, with the remaining 15 seats taken up by the KMT's pro-localization lawmakers.

  Lee said the expectation that the KMT's pro-localization lawmakers would join the alliance was based on predictions that the KMT would further split up after the legislative election.

  "At this time, the TSU has been keenly beckoning to the KMT's pro-localization lawmakers to join the party under the leadership of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Although these KMT lawmakers may find themselves stuck in a dilemma of whether to defect from the KMT at such a sensitive moment, they should be able to join the alliance's operation after the legislative elections, when the KMT splits up further," Lee Chun-yi said.

  While the formation of such a legislative majority alliance needs further integration and cooperation within the pan-green camp, there is fierce competition among DPP lawmakers from various factions competing for nominations as legislative candidates.

  The TSU has decided to nominate only one or two candidates in each electoral district in a bid not to be crowded out by contestants from other parties.
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