Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen announced May 23 that she will participate in the year-end elections and run for mayor of New Taipei City.
The announcement ended months of speculation over who would represent the opposition DPP in the New Taipei City race, and whether Tsai would even run at all.
Upon learning of the announcement, Eric Li-luan Chu, the ruling Kuomintang’s candidate for New Taipei City, said he looks forward to competing with Tsai in the election, and added that the city needs a mayor who can best fulfill his or her duties to the people of the city.
Some members of the DPP, however, openly speculated if running for mayor while serving as party head would leave Tsai overtaxed.
Noting that Tsai had just won re-election to a second term as party chairwoman, former Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien said she was worried that Tsai would be caught up in multiple roles.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee also said Tsai could face pressure from party members to leave her post as DPP chairwoman. This pressure could lead to instability for the party, he said.
On the same day that Tsai declared her candidacy, DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan said he would run for mayor of Taichung City.
With the latest two announcements the DPP’s lineup for the five major cities involved in the year-end elections is now clear. In addition to Tsai and Su, the party will nominate former Premier Su Tseng-chang for Taipei City, Legislator Lai Ching-te for Tainan City, and current Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu for Kaohsiung City.
The DPP is scheduled to introduce all five candidates to the public May 24. The candidates will still need to be approved by the party’s Central Executive Committee May 25, but the approval process is not expected to yield any surprises.
In a press release the DPP gave two main reasons for why Tsai and Su are running in the elections. Because of the incompetency of President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration, each of the five cities will be hotly contested, it said. The DPP does not want to give up any of the five cities, but on the contrary has put forward its strongest possible candidates, the statement said.
In addition, the DPP will want to lead the people of Taiwan to a better and more prosperous future, it said. The party will soon release a comprehensive plan outlining the party’s objectives and plans for Taiwan for the next decade. All five of its candidates will subscribe to the 10-year plan, it said.
The elections are scheduled for November 27 in Taipei City, New Taipei City, which was upgraded from Taipei County, and Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities, which were created by merging their respective cities and counties. (KL-HZW)