Ability and performance is the key point, and not age, for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidates for next year’s Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市) mayoral elections, Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said on Saturday.
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), 65, has expressed an interest in the New Taipei City post, while former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), 69, has said she might seek the party’s nomination to stand in Taipei.
Concern about their age has led the pair to be called Wu Fu Qian Sui (五府千歲), in reference to the five Taoist deities that have been worshipped for centuries.
Su said the reason the deities have continued to be worshipped is because they have the interests of the people at heart, and are worthy of the public’s adulation and trust.
“The principal qualities we must seek from our nominees is whether they are respected and supported by the people and are capable and willing to help them,” Su said.
“If age is a defining factor for everything, then [Jody] Chiang (江蕙) and A-mei (張惠妹) would have been replaced by Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) or Yao Yao (瑤瑤),” Su said.
Singer Tsai and actress Yao Yao are younger than singers Chiang and A-mei.
As for the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) idea that its Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) could be included in the telephone polls that will be a part of the DPP’s primaries for New Taipei City, Su said that while Lin was capable, he is a TSU member.
“We respect the TSU and its nomination system, but the DPP has its own system,” Su said.
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