By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the son of imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), yesterday said that he intends to run in the 2016 legislative elections after suffering a defeat last year, and also appealed to the Ministry of Justice to grant his ailing father medical parole.
“I said after the setback last year that I am going to give it another try. Currently, that goal remains unchanged,” Chen told reporters on the sidelines of an event organized by the Ketagalan Institute, an educational institution founded by Chen Shui-bian, who is serving an 20-year sentence for corruption.
As an independent candidate, 33-year-old Chen last year lost the legislative election in Greater Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Siaogang (小港) districts, which had long been a traditional Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stronghold.
According to the DPP, Chen Chih-chung’s decision to stand for election took votes away from DPP candidate Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成) by garnering 26.6 percent of the vote, meaning Kuo, who had expected an easy victory, finished with 32.3 percent of the vote, losing to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正).
Chen’s position as an independent Greater Kaohsiung councilor was annulled in August 2011 after the Supreme Court found him guilty of perjury, a verdict he said amounted to political persecution. Despite the DPP’s dissuasion, Chen later announced he was running in the legislative election.