The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will discuss the party's nomination mechanism for the year-end special municipality elections at a party meeting tomorrow, an official said yesterday.
“At present, there are two voices within the party. One favors candidates vying to take part in the municipality elections be decided by polls, while the other supports a combination of polls and party primary to decide the nominees,” DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told a press conference.
The party will address the matter at its Central Executive Committee meeting tomorrow, Tsai said. If the party fails to reach a consensus at the meeting, the matter will be discussed at its National Congress on Jan. 24, he added.
The special municipality polls will cover Taipei City, as well as Taipei County (which will be called Sinbei City after the upgrade), as well as three new special municipalities created by the merger of the cities and counties of Kaohsiung, Taichung and Tainan.
The elections are widely regarded as a vital to the next presidential election, which will take place in 2012.
At a separate setting yesterday, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the DPP would focus on next month's legislative by-elections first, and then the year-end special municipality elections.
She rejected speculation that competition among aspiring candidates for the special municipality elections would split the party.
“If the party wants to go forward ... it must unify and form a consensus before making any policy or decision,” she said.
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