By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) yesterday said she had not ruled out running for Changhua County commissioner in November as an independent despite such a move possibly hurting the pan-green camp’s chances of winning the constituency.
“Whether or not a candidate should run in an election should be decided by the voters, not by political parties,” Huang, who was stripped of her TSU membership because she insisted on running, told a press conference.
She had begun preparing her campaign after former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) last year encouraged her to run and her motivation was made even stronger after the Sunflower movement, said Huang, who served as TSU lawmaker from 2012 to this year.
Due to TSU headquarters’ insistence that the pan-green camp should only have one candidate, the party suspended Huang’s membership. Huang said she respected the decision.
The Democratic Progressive Party has nominated Legislator Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) as its candidate in the county.
Huang said she was not concerned about the negative impact of a so-called “pan-green split” if she entered the race, since the county has always been a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) stronghold and her primary goal would be garnering support from independent voters.
Her father, former Changhua County commissioner Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城), supports her decision to run, she said.
Asked if she would accept an “integration mechanism” that select a final pan-green camp candidate between Wei and her by a public opinion poll, Huang Wen-ling said that “it would eventually come down to the people’s decision.”
She pledged government transparency if she was elected, promising that the contents and documents of all government meetings would be released online within 45 minutes of a meeting’s conclusion.