Vice President William Lai (賴清德) is expected to register tomorrow to join the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nomination process for next year’s presidential election, inside sources said.
Lai, who is also chairman of the DPP, would submit his registration form — which was collected earlier by his aides — at the party’s headquarters in Taipei, sources said, adding that he would give a brief speech on his reasons for seeking the party’s nomination as its presidential candidate.
Registration for the DPP’s party primary opened yesterday and runs through Friday.
Photo: Taipei Times
The party primary ends on April 12, when the DPP is scheduled to announce its presidential candidate.
The DPP aims to complete the nomination process for its presidential and legislative candidates earlier than usual, a party insider said.
By doing so, all DPP members and candidates would be “ready for action” with regards to campaigning, and hopefully win back people’s trust while motivating the party’s traditional supporters, the source said.
A source close to Lai’s team said that the DPP would make detailed preparations and closely gauge shifts in the political landscape to account for all eventualities, such as if the presidential election comes down to a showdown between the pan-green and pan-blue camps, or if it is a three-way race involving the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) or another party.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and TPP are mainly seen as having overlapping supporters, but some opinion polls have shown that the TPP could take some of the DPP’s share of young voters, a source said.
“We believe TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) will enter the presidential race, as he wants to attract more votes to boost support for the TPP’s legislative candidates, and to get more legislators-at-large,” they said.
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