The People First Party (PFP) yesterday announced its first batch of candidates for the year-end local elections, nominating 20 people to run for city and county councilor seats as it celebrated its 18th anniversary.
PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) made the announcements as he presided over a news conference at the party’s new headquarters on Taipei’s Songjiang Road.
Among the nominees are six candidates for the Keelung election, three for Taipei, two each for Taoyuan and Tainan, and one each for Hsinchu, Taichung and Kaohsiung, as well as one each for Yilan, Kinmen, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties.
“We are 18, we are an A-team,” Soong said, as he highlighted the seven incumbent city councilors on the list, including Taipei city councilors Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) and Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成); Keelung city councilors Hsu Li-li (徐莉莉), Chuang Ching-tien (莊錦田) and Yang Hsiu-yu (楊秀玉); Taichung City Councilor Hung Ching-fu (洪金福) and Yilan County Councilor Chen Chieh-lin (陳傑麟).
Soong said he hoped the candidates could become an unwavering force in service of Taiwan, its people and cross-strait peace.
Although the party has had its ups and downs over the past 18 years, the PFP has never forsaken its founding principle, which is not to serve the pan-green or pan-blue camps, but to be a team that fights for what it believes, Soong said.
Asked whether the PFP plans to field a candidate for the Taipei mayoral seat in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one local elections, Soong said it has yet to discuss the matter, but would announce its decision at an opportune time.
However, if another party and its candidate would support the idea of putting the “people first,” his party would be willing to endorse that candidate, Soong said.
The PFP, which split from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), does not govern any city or county. It occupies three out of the 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan.
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