The New Power Party (NPP) on Thursday announced its first list of candidates to contest city and county councilor positions in November’s local elections, but it declined to confirm whether it would field any mayoral candidates.
The NPP said it has chosen six men and four women to run for councilor positions in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, as well as Yilan and Hualien counties.
The party “hopes to bring more young talent into local councils,” NPP Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said, adding that it aims to field as many as 50 councilor candidates across Taiwan.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The party is expected to announce more candidates in the following weeks, including incumbent councilors seeking re-election, Chen said.
NPP Secretary-General Christy Pai (白卿芬) said that it took the party a long time to settle on “the best candidates,” who are prominent in fields such as advocacy, politics and social services.
The 10 candidates include former diplomat Liu Shih-chieh (劉仕傑), who is the NPP’s director of international affairs.
Liu, 41, said that if he is elected as a Taipei city councilor, he would focus on promoting bilingual education, and addressing traffic and safety problems.
Wu Hsiang-chun (吳香君), a founding member of the NPP who has worked in the party’s election campaigns for eight years, is to run for city councilor in New Taipei City’s fourth electoral district, which includes Sinjhuang District (新莊).
Asked whether the party would put up mayoral candidates, Chen said that “we certainly hope to have our own candidates.”
Hsinchu is where the NPP is most likely to field a mayoral candidate, she said, adding that “a lot of people have been encouraging” NPP Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) to run there.
The party is still assessing the situation, Chen said, making mention of a Democratic Progressive Party push to merge Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County into a special municipality.
The NPP has had more support in the Hsinchu region than in any other part of Taiwan, with four of its 11 councilors in the region.
It would not rule out collaborating with other parties in mayoral elections, Chen said.
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