The Green Party Taiwan has been in contact with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and hopes to form an alliance with it and other minor parties for next year’s legislative elections to secure more seats, Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) said on Saturday.
The Green Party-SDP Alliance in the 2016 legislative elections pooled their votes and reached the 2 percent threshold needed to be allotted at-large seats in next year’s elections, said Wang, a former Green Party convener.
Although the alliance ended, the parties recently began discussing collaborating again for the Jan. 11 elections, but he hopes the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, formerly known as Taiwan Radical Wings, would be included, Wang said.
“In the best-case scenario, the three would form an alliance,” Wang said.
If not, the Green Party could hopefully at least renew its alliance with the SDP, he added.
If that is not possible, the Green Party would have to nominate at least 10 candidates to reach the threshold to be allotted at-large seats, Wang said.
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party has been in touch with other pan-green parties, although it has yet to decide whether it wants to nominate its own candidates, spokesman Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said.
If other pan-green parties cannot find suitable candidates to run against pan-blue candidates, especially in difficult constituencies, Taiwan Statebuilding would consider nominating its own candidates in those districts, Chen said.
Meanwhile, the SDP only plans to nominate former party convener Fan Yun (范雲) as a legislative candidate, its spokesman, Chen Yung-yen (陳永言), said.
The SDP has communicated with other pan-green parties about it nominating Fan in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) and received friendly responses, he said.
As for the presidential election, that the SDP has yet to make a formal decision, Chen said.
However, most members appear to support President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) re-election bid, he said.
The Green Party, Taiwan Statebuilding Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union have all expressed support for Tsai.
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