Wednesday, June 18, 2014

DPP, ex-vice president spar over Ko’s candidacy

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday denied assertions by former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) that the party’s collaboration with independent hopeful Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in the Taipei mayoral election was a personal decision by DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), saying it was a “collective decision of the party.”

“The decision not to nominate our own candidate in the election was made by the Central Executive Committee and it was a response to people’s expectations. However, we respect [Lu’s] comment,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said.

Lu, one of the early DPP hopefuls for the nomination, said in an interview with online news Web site NOWnews on Monday that “Tsai’s decision was a disgrace for the party,” and that the chairperson and party officials who supported Ko’s campaign should resign if Ko loses the election.

Responding to Lu’s comments, DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), who served as convener of a task force for the party’s Taipei mayoral primary, reiterated that the decision was not of Tsai’s own and urged Lu to embrace the generational shift.

“A large ship will have to leave the port some day,” Gao said, urging Lu to leave the future to the younger generation.

“It is easy to make cynical remarks, but [Lu] should think about who would be the beneficiary of her remarks,” DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said.

Tuan said that former DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Tsai were only implementing the committee’s decision and he wondered why the two should be held responsible for Ko’s election results.

Lu, who refused to participate in the primary mechanism to finalize a candidate between Ko and DPP contenders, reiterated yesterday that she did not rule out entering the mayoral race.

“I will give my blessings to Ko if his policy and ideology are consistent with those of the DPP. However, I will make my own decision if somehow he still has a strange political ideology,” Lu said.

Ko has been avoiding presenting his platform and it would be difficult to assess his intended policies, the former vice president said.

Lu is scheduled to organize a press conference today, in which she and several DPP members are expected to question the legitimacy of DPP-conducted polls — a longstanding mechanism the party has used to determine nominees, including the poll between Ko and DPP hopeful Pasuya Yao (姚文智) last week.

Ko beat Yao in the poll to secure the pan-green camp candidacy.