The New Power Party’s chairperson election is to be postponed to Feb. 11 after the party decided to reassign candidates’ ballot numbers by conducting a draw, the party said yesterday.
The party originally planned to hold an online election for its decisionmaking committee from Monday to Wednesday next week and the chairperson election on Friday next week.
However, after a candidate complained about the way ballot numbers were assigned based on registration order, the party decided to reassign candidates’ numbers by conducting a draw to ensure fairness.
The committee election has been postponed to Thursday to Friday next week and the chairperson election to Feb. 11.
In the past, candidates were always assigned numbers based on their registration order, the party said.
“However, as the rule was not explained in the registration notice and considering that more members have registered than ever before — including many who have never run for committee member — the election committee understands that some of the candidates might have been unaware of the rule, making the election unfair,” it said.
It apologized to candidates for any inconvenience caused by the reassignment of numbers and said it would work on improving election rules.
Sixty-four people have registered to compete for the 15 seats on the committee. Among the candidates are legislators Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), Freddy Lim (林昶佐), Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, party Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏), Hsinchu chapter head Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and Taipei City Councilor Lin Liang-chun (林亮君).
According to party charter, the party chair must be a committee member and be elected by the 15 members.
Many expected Lim to be elected the next chairman after party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Monday announced that he would not seek re-election, but Lim said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published on Tuesday that he does not have plans to vie for the chairpersonship.
Lim plans to run for re-election as legislator in Taipei’s Zhongzheng (中正) and Wanhua (萬華) districts and as a result has not made plans to run for chairman, he said.
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