Taipei, Jan. 12 (CNA) The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) passed a resolution Wednesday to finalize its primary process, which will see the implementation of a national poll for nominations for the 2012 presidential election.
The decision was not reached without disagreement, as senior party members, headed by former Vice President Annette Lu, tried to persuade the party's Central Executive Committee in a meeting to include an intraparty vote to determine the presidential candidate.
The meeting passed a proposal submitted by a party task force convened by DPP Secretary-general Su Jia-chyuan, under which the party's candidate will be nominated through a national poll.
Su said that such a mechanism would help preserve party unity -- a critical factor in the DPP's chances of victory in the 2012 presidential race.
DPP Legislator Chen Min-wen, a member of the task force, told reporters after the meeting that the decision was reached by consensus and that Lu accepted the final result. The proposal, he said, will be sent to a vote in the Jan. 22 party plenary session and if passed, will then be adopted.
Lu, who is widely believed to be interested in running for the presidency, told reporters that all options have been thoroughly discussed in the meeting and that the goal of winning the 2012 presidential election was unanimous, despite previous differences of opinion on the primary process to be used.
At a press conference at the Legislative Yuan before the meeting, Lu expressed her support for using both options to give a voice to party members and ordinary citizens, saying that the primary process should consist of a series of nationwide debates held across the country, an intraparty vote, and a national poll.
"The process would be able to include the opinions of DPP members and citizens and let the voters thoroughly examine the visions of all the candidates. On top of that, the series of debates would mean that candidates would have to be fully prepared early," Lu said.
Many DPP members have suggested that a hotly contested party primary in the 2008 presidential campaign caused irreparable harm among the candidates and ultimately hurt the DPP's campaign.
The negative effect of "proxy" members, which has plagued the party in the past, also swayed the task force to reject the idea of an intraparty vote.
The DPP, which usually nominates its presidential candidate in May the year before the election, decided to nominate its candidate in March this year to give whomever is chosen more time to campaign.
In addition to Lu, incumbent DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP's 2008 presidential ticket of Frank Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang are all said to be interested in running in 2012. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J