Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) legislative candidate Fan Yun (范雲) yesterday stood side-by-side as they took part in a boxed meal-making event to campaign for food safety.
Fan, cofounder of the SDP earlier this year said that the SDP would not cooperate with the DPP, and that the SDP would not negotiate with the DPP to jointly endorse a legislative candidate through opinion polling.
The SDP has also criticized the DPP over its reaction to the meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The SDP and the Green Party Taiwan (GPT), which are not in a strategic alliance with the DPP for the legislative elections, have both said that one of the reasons why the alliance would not include the New Power Party (NPP) is because the NPP chose to have a closer partnership with the DPP as part of its campaign strategy.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Fan said that she had been invited by former DPP lawmaker Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) to participate in the event.
“It’s a good thing that our friends from different parties all support food safety,” Fan said.
“The SDP-GPT alliance has decided not to openly support a particular presidential candidate,” she added.
Asked if the SDP would support Tsai in the presidential race, Fan said that the SDP-GPT alliance’s main objective is to defeat the KMT and become a strong opposition.
However, Fan later said that, having been part of the nation’s feminist movement and pushing for female participation in politics, that “of course I would look forward to see a woman being elected the national leader as soon as possible, which would be a new milestone in Taiwan’s democracy.”
Tsai showed support for Fan in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) — where the DPP did not nominate its own candidate — and when asked about the at-large party ballot, Tsai said: “We still hope [voters] would cast their at-large ballot for the DPP.”
Although Fan denied she has met with the DPP Election Campaign Strategy Committee, DPP Taipei City Chapter director Huang Cheng-kuo (黃承國) said that he has met with Fan.
Yesterday’s event triggered criticism from activists who have worked with the SDP and GPT, who panned the two parties for breaking their earlier promises on not working with the DPP in the election.
SDP Secretary-General Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said that “because this is a charity event, we didn’t feel there was any need to reject a meeting between the two parties’ leaders.”
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
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