Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will hold a national poll to determine its nominee for the 2012 presidential election after a revision of its election nomination rules was passed Saturday at a plenary session.
The proposal, recommended by the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) , won by a 227-84 margin at the session, and will replace the previous system of combining the results of a party primary and a public opinion poll.
The new format will also be used to nominate the party's candidates in legislative, mayoral, and city councilor elections. Nominations of at-large legislators, who are not directly elected by voters, will be determined by a nomination committee.
DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said the revised mechanism will help preserve party unity, which many in the party believe is critical to the DPP's chances of victory in the 2012 presidential race.
Many DPP members have suggested that a hotly contested party primary to determine the nominee for the 2008 presidential campaign caused irreparable harm among the candidates and ultimately hurt its chances in the general election.
The negative effect of "proxy" members, which has plagued the party in the past, also swayed the party to reject the idea of an intraparty vote.
Opponents of the newly-adopted format said the new regulation prevented party members from exercising their rights.
Former Vice President Annette Lu, whose recommendation to retain the current format was dropped during a CEC meeting last week, tried to make a last push for her proposal Saturday before leaving the plenary early and publicly expressing her discontent.
In addition to Lu, who is widely believed to be interested in running for the presidency, Tsai, and the DPP's 2008 presidential and vice presidential candidates, Frank Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang, are all said to be interested in pursuing the presidency in 2012. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls