Former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) on Thursday said that she has joined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), a sign that she plans to return to politics ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
Huang, 53, is a former People First Party Taipei city councilor who later served as deputy in the administration of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the founder and chair of the TPP.
She ran as an independent in Taipei’s mayoral election in November last year, garnering about 25 percent of the vote and finishing third.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Huang wrote on Facebook that she has officially joined the TPP, saying that after 24 years, public service has become a habit.
Huang wrote that she felt a responsibility to the 340,000 people who supported her bid to become Taipei mayor, many of whom were looking for an alternative to “political divisions and bondage to ideology.”
In this regard, “I firmly believe that Ko Wen-je and the TPP are the right choice for their honesty and integrity,” she said.
She wrote that she worked with Ko for five years as a city councilor and almost three years as deputy mayor, and learned in that time what it would take to root out corruption and plutocracy in government.
While Ko is “not perfect,” his approach to governing brought “visible changes” to the city in fiscal discipline, the pursuit of social justice and, above all, personal integrity, Huang said.
Although she fell short in her mayoral run, she remains convinced that the “social movement to reform Taiwan’s governing culture is blossoming and bearing fruit,” Huang said.
“Across Taiwan, there is a considerable proportion of centrist voters who have awakened from blue-green oppositionism and chosen more correct values,” she said, referring to the colors of Taiwan’s two main political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Huang’s post did not give any details of her political plans, although her announcement came with just over nine months until the elections on Jan. 13 next year.
Ko is widely expected to run as the TPP’s presidential candidate, not least because his participation could help the party win additional seats in the legislature.
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