Thursday, February 27, 2014

Su, Yu deny New Taipei candidacy replacement rumors

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and the party’s New Taipei City mayoral candidate, former premier Yu Shyi-kun, yesterday reiterated that reports of Su replacing Yu in the November race were groundless.

A report on Storm Media, an online news Web site, said last week that if Su lost in his re-election bid in the chairman race in May, the chairman might seek to replace Yu in the New Taipei City mayoral election to prolong his political career.

Asked about the rumor again yesterday, Su said that the DPP has always respected its system and regulations, and it was not possible for anyone to violate democratic principles for personal gain.

“It is not an issue at all and people should not believe groundless rumors,” Su said.

Yu told reporters before the weekly Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting that the replacement rumor was false and he would “fight to the very end” to win the constituency back for the party.

Yu denied that he and Su had reached a deal in which Su pledged to nominate Yu in exchange for Yu’s support in the chairman election.

Yu said he was confident that he could beat his most likely opponent in the election, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫).

In related news, the CSC meeting passed a proposal by Su to refer Taoyuan County Councilor Lo Wen-ching (羅文欽) to the Central Review Committee for possible expulsion from the party.

Lo was accused of assaulting a police officer on Thursday last week, when the officer led an inspection team to a nightclub in the county’s Pingjhen City (平鎮), where the councilor was drinking with his friends.

Su told reporters that the CSC concluded that Lo’s misconduct had damaged the DPP’s reputation and all CSC members agreed Lo should be stripped of his party membership, but the final decision would have to be made by the Central Review Committee.