Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has come under criticism from Taipei City Council caucus whip Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for stumping for his former campaign aide Billy Pan’s (潘建志) bid for next year’s legislative elections.
Pan has declared his intention to run in the election, representing Zhongshan (中山) and northern Songshan (松山) districts in Taipei City, where DPP city councilor Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) is also running.
The DPP has been looking to negotiate an arrangement between the two, so as to avoid having two pan-green candidates competing in the same electoral district.
However, before any negotiations had taken place, Ko attended Pan’s campaign event on Saturday, triggering protests from the DPP.
Wu said Ko’s move to campaign for Pan before a cooperation plan for pan-green legislative candidates could be finalized has led the media to interpret it as an infighting within the pan-green camp.
She added that Ko should have expected such a reaction, so what he did was like firing a shot at his DPP allies who have long supported him.
“It’s especially hurtful for him to do so on Valentine’s Day,” Wu said.
She said that while the DPP is still at the primary stage for the election, what Ko did was like declaring war on his own ally, adding that it is his call whether to support Pan or Liang, but that he should wait until a final candidate is decided.
Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) of the DPP agreed, saying the move was unwise and would lead to conflict within the pan-green camp, urging the mayor to think twice before any political move.
In response, Ko’s assistant said that the mayor had informed Liang about the event in advance and that Liang understood Ko’s stance, adding that Ko would respect the final result of the negotiation.
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