Newly returned Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) ruled out a run for president on his first day back in office yesterday, but said it was too early to comment on a vice-presidential bid.
Su spent the day greeting old colleagues and meeting with senior party officials.
This was Su’s second time assuming the post following his run for Greater Taichung mayor.
His impressive result there, coming within 2.5 percentage points of Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), has led to speculation within DPP circles that he could appear on the nomination ballot for the 2012 presidential election.
However, Su denied the possibility, saying: “I could never run for president. It will absolutely, absolutely, never happen.”
Asked about a possible run for vice-president, however, he said: “We are not yet at that point.”
“I could never say right now who I would pair up with. I wouldn’t want to frighten the other candidate,” Su said. “My job right now is to focus on doing all that I can as secretary-general.”
The DPP is expected to nominate its presidential candidates for the 2012 poll toward the middle of next year after the party’s national convention settles on a nomination mechanism by the end of next month.
The nomination regulations, often a source of bitter controversy among potential nominees, are expected to be the first item on the agenda for Su. DPP officials are required to draw up a set of proposals, which will also likely be used to nominate legislators, before the annual convention.
While Su did not say which ideas the party was leaning toward, he acknowledged that the final proposal was likely to either include nominations based entirely on using opinion polls or a mixture of opinion and internal party membership polls.
Meanwhile, Su said it would be “very nice” if former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) made a run for the party nomination ahead of 2012. Media have speculated that Lu could announce a bid soon.
Other speculated frontrunners for the nomination include DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
“As long as the nomination regulations are set ... I think it is good that people want to come out and run as a candidate. It is something that we are happy to see,” Su said.
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