Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said yesterday that former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) should take over the party’s helm to put an end to the infighting.
Su said it would be better to settle on the next party leader via negotiations rather than elections. He said that while the party must be led by someone with political stature, those who met the requirement were reluctant to run because they would become the target of factional attacks.
If Lin could lead the party, Su said, the infighting would end.
While the DPP will hold a last meeting to review the party’s election defeat and discuss its future direction on April 19, Su said he would participate if Lin were to preside over the meeting.
However, he said he was unlikely to attend if the meeting were officiated by “someone who lost the election.”
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has said he is not against using negotiations to find a new party leader. He would negotiate with aspirants and the party would only have an election if the negotiations failed.
Su made the remarks after meeting DPP vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) at Tainan County Hall yesterday morning. Su Tseng-chang said he had come to thank Su Huan-chih for his assistance during the election. The DPP garnered more than 56 percent of the votes in Tainan County, to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 44 percent.
The DPP ticket won in only five counties — Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
Su Tseng-chang said yesterday he would take a step back and look at his role in the defeat, but that the entire process also deserved review.
On the election of a party chairman, he said it would be unfair to allow young party members with less than a year as party members to elect the new leader next month. The party keeps making the same mistakes when it changes the rules along the way, he said.
The party’s Central Executive Committee approved on Monday a proposal presented by Hsieh allowing party members aged between 18 and 35 who have held party membership for less than a year to vote for the chairman next month.
Su Tseng-chang also visited Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) yesterday. Hsu told reporters after their closed-door meeting that Su Tseng-chang had reiterated that he would not run for party chairman.
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