By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday announced his bid in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primary for the Taipei mayoral election, becoming the latest contender on an already crowded list of pan-green camp aspirant candidates.
Yao was the sixth pan-green aspirant to announce participation in the primary, with former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄), incumbent lawmaker Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), Taipei City Council deputy speaker Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) as well as National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent, already in the mix.
“I’ve decided to make a bid in the primary. My campaign will be one of straightforwardness and professionalism with no regard for support ratings and how many votes I’m going to get,” Yao told a press conference.
He said that recent campaigning by the pan-green camp aspirants was likely the most incredible primary campaign in the nation’s history because of the way the aspirants had been engaging in meaningless wars of rhetoric and gossip-style talking points.
“No one has been talking about public policy and a vision for Taipei City,” Yao said.
The campaign will be an ambitious political experiment, in which no organization of rallies, distribution of promotional flyers and seeking endorsements from senior politicians will be found, Yao said, adding that he would concentrate only on policies and visions that would make Taipei a better city.
The DPP has not decided on how the primary — which is to be conducted in the form of a public opinion poll — will be held, in particular whether Ko, currently far and away the leader in support ratings among the six contenders, should be included in the poll.
A public opinion poll published yesterday by the Chinese-language newspaper China Times showed Ko is leading the most likely Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Sean Lien (連勝文), former Taipei EasyCard Co chairman, by two percentage points, at 33 percent to 31 percent.
Ko’s support rate has gone up by seven percentage points since a similar poll last month and he would have a better chance at winning if he ran as an independent rather than a DPP member, according to the poll.
The poll found that 72 percent of pan-green supporters said they would vote for Ko regardless of whether he represented the DPP.
However, the outspoken physician could garner more votes from other types of constituents as an independent, securing a support rate of seven percentage points more from the pan-blue supporters (20 percent as an independent to 13 percent as a DPP member) and six percentage points more from independent voters (32 percent to 26 percent), the poll showed.
Asked if Ko should become a DPP member and represent the party in the November election, 41 percent of the respondents said no, while 15 percent supported the idea, according to the poll.