By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) next generation of politicians should be “resolute and ready to take charge” to prepare the party for future challenges, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
“The DPP is in dire need of talented political leaders at this moment. We need those who are resolute and ready to take charge, as well as those who understand how to set the agenda and initiate social discussions,” she said in Greater Kaohsiung.
Tsai, who is traveling nationwide in of a nine-day “thank-you trip” to express gratitude to supporters after losing the Jan. 14 presidential election, is scheduled to step down as party chair on March 1.
The 56-year-old had high hopes for the party in the eighth legislature, which begins today, saying that the 40 DPP lawmakers in the new legislature, most of whom are in their 40s and 50s, are the DPP’s “most valuable assets.”
She urged the legislators to develop their political prowess and leadership to shoulder the responsibility for the next phase following the party’s transformative period between 2008 and this year.
Also yesterday, the DPP denied it had failed to deploy sufficient staffers to scrutinize balloting in the presidential and legislative elections, saying that it had personnel to monitor balloting in about 98 percent of polling stations nationwide.
The party had organized 104 seminars to train staffers nationwide on balloting scrutiny since April last year and deployed 14,523 personnel at 14,806 polling stations, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said, adding that the 98.04 percent rate was the highest record for presidential elections.
In response to rampant rumors circulating on various online forums about suspicious ballot rigging, Lin said the party urged the Central Election Commission (CEC) to investigate all cases reported by local residents and to offer clear explanations.
“We’ve decided not to over-speculate before the CEC releases the results of its investigation,” Lin said.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), one of two newly appointed DPP spokespersons along with Lin Yu-chang (林右昌), said the DPP plans to propose an amendment to the election law and make video-recording of ballot-counting a requirement at all polling stations.