By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday announced he would run for the chairmanship of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in May, setting up a potential three-way race between Hsieh, incumbent DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for the leadership.
Speaking to the media before the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting, Hsieh formally announced his bid for the election, saying he could better promote his political vision and initiative and speed up party reform if he was chairman.
Su and Tsai have yet to publicly announce their intention to run, but their eventual participation is widely expected.
Su did not comment on the announcement, while Tsai’s office that said that every DPP member has the right to participate in the election.
The senior politician, who is in the moderate wing of the party on China policy, has spent the majority of the past three years advocating his initiative of “two constitutions, different interpretations” (憲法各表), and said the proposal would be the solution to ease bilateral tensions between the DPP and Beijing.
Hsieh has never denied reports of his preference for an alliance with Tsai to go up against Su, who is also believed to be interested in the DPP’s nomination for the presidential election in 2016.
Asked about a “Hsieh-Tsai alliance,” Hsieh reiterated that he still favored a “division of labor” because it would be difficult for a party chairman to serve as a presidential candidate at the same time.
Hsieh repeatedly mentioned his private talks with Tsai about the alliance, but Tsai’s office denied there had been such meetings.
The former premier hinted at his bid in his weekly radio talk show on Tuesday night.
“Entering the election is not an issue to me. Dropping out from the race is,” he said.
During the talk show, Hsieh said his efforts to promote his “two constitutions, different interpretations” initiative for more than three years had finally paid off, with a recent opinion poll showing that 61 percent of respondents supported the proposal as the backbone of the DPP’s China policy.
“That was why I called for the party to organize a China policy debate. The leader of this party must have a clear policy on cross-strait relations,” he said.