The race for Taipei mayor will be “tough,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said yesterday as he chided the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for teaming up against the DPP with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in other parts of the country ahead of local elections next month.
Likening election campaigns to running a marathon, Lin told show host Frances Huang (黃光芹) in an exclusive interview that candidates who peak in the ratings early in the race would find it difficult to keep up the momentum.
The remarks referred to Legislator Anne Kao (高虹安), the TPP’s Hsinchu mayoral candidate, who has been accused of plagiarism.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
The KMT backs Kao, but if elected, she is unlikely to return the favor and back the KMT’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election, Lin said.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the KMT accompanied Kao when she on Sunday inspected the city’s Jianguo Market, he said.
Her efforts to back a candidate of a different party sends mixed signals to candidates of her own party who receive less support, Lin said.
That KMT figures were willing to effectively withdraw support from the party’s own candidate in Hsinchu City and instead support the TPP candidate shows that many in the party do not value its own candidates, he said.
Lin said that KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) should speak up in support of the party’s Hsinchu mayoral candidate, Lin Keng-jen (林耕仁).
“The KMT might lose in Hsinchu City,” Sidney Lin said, adding that the party has over the years had high ratings in the city.
The mayoral race might also influence the presidential election in two years, Sidney Lin said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) is rallying support in the “tight” race, Sidney Lin said, adding that the race would be open until election day.
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