The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday neither confirmed nor denied that a possible coalition with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in next year’s municipal and mayoral elections would require the independent mayor to refrain from supporting city councilor candidates of other parties.
According to media reports, the DPP, despite attempts to field its own candidate in the Taipei mayoral election next year, is considering renewing its alliance with Ko on condition that Ko, an independent, should withdraw his support for candidates from other parties, notably the New Power Party (NPP).
Such a condition would prevent the NPP, which is on the same side of the political spectrum as the DPP, from courting potential DPP voters, the reports said.
The DPP yesterday refused to respond to the reports, saying it had not yet finalized its election strategy.
DPP spokeswoman Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) said the party would not formally decide on election plans until March or April next year, when the DPP is to hold nationwide primary elections for mayoral and city councilor candidates.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智), who has announced his intention to run for Taipei mayor, said he had not heard of the reports.
The timing was “premature for deciding on an election strategy” as the DPP had not yet settled on a nomination mechanism, Yao said.
In 2014, the DPP forfeited the Taipei mayoral race to make way for Ko, who defeated his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent Sean Lien (連勝文) by a comfortable margin of 16.34 percentage points, while 27 DPP Taipei councilor candidates were elected on the back of the DPP-Ko alliance.
Ko has been leading the polls ahead of possible challengers including Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT. That might push the DPP to renew the alliance as it continues to put priority on preventing the KMT from winning the Taipei mayoral election while securing DPP seats in the city council.
In the 2014 elections, Ko supported NPP and Social Democratic Party candidates wherever the DPP made way for those parties, but asked supporters to vote for DPP candidates in constituencies where they went head-to-head with such “third way” parties.
DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) on Thursday last week said there would be little room for cooperation between the DPP and the NPP next year.
Most constituencies in Taipei elect more than one candidate to the city council in municipal elections, meaning that DPP and NPP candidates could be elected alongside each other in the same district, so collaboration is less likely in council elections, Hung said.
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