By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) is expected to be directly recruited by the DPP as its candidate in the Taitung County commissioner election in the Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting today.
Liu announced that he would accept the party’s direct nomination as candidate in a press conference held in Taitung City yesterday.
“I am in the race because of my inseparable feelings toward this place where I grew up and because competition would bring about more changes to the eastern county,” Liu told the press conference.
If nominated, the election in November will be Liu’s fourth participation in the commissioner race in his hometown, which has been a perennially weak constituency for the DPP.
The 47-year-old has lost three times in previous election attempts, including the 2005 race, when he ran as an independent, the by-election in 2006 and the 2009 race as a DPP candidate. Liu lost by 5,300 votes, or 5.1 percent, to incumbent Taitung Commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) in 2009.
The former judge at the Kaohsiung and Taitung district courts boosted his political profile with a speech during an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan, when he questioned then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) over Huang’s alleged leaking of secret information related to an ongoing investigation to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during the so-called “September Strife” between the president and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The video clip of Liu’s speech went viral on the Internet.
According to DPP spokesperson Xavier Chang (張惇涵), Liu’s nomination is expected to be approved by the CEC meeting.
Responding to Liu’s potential challenge, Taitung Commissioner Justin Huang, who is seeking re-election, said he has confidence in what he has achieved in the past four years and he “would be competing with nobody but himself” in the election.