Wednesday, August 03, 2011

DPP’s candidate for vice president to be announced Aug. 28

By Chris Wang  /  Staff Reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will announce her vice presidential running mate for January’s presidential election at the party congress on Aug. 28, campaign spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said yesterday.

“The evaluation process of Tsai’s running mate has entered its final stage. While the vice presidential candidate has been highly anticipated, the nomination will not be announced until the party congress,” Hsu told a press conference to announce the party’s first national campaign meeting.

That campaign meeting will be held today, five-and-a-half months before the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections. Today’s meeting will see the party’s heavyweights, including former premiers Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun, and representatives of campaign committees from cities and counties nationwide discuss details from strategy to division of labor.

The meeting will serve as a communication platform between the headquarters and local campaign offices to make sure the campaign will be well organized and the strategy well-understood, Hsu said.

The first half of the two-hour meeting, with the theme of “All set, march toward victory,” will be open to the press, she said.

Su’s attendance has been seen as an important step toward party solidarity, which had been in doubt after he lost to Tsai in the DPP presidential primary in April. Su, who will chair today’s meeting, subsequently accepted the offer to be Tsai’s campaign chairman.