By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters yesterday denied that Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has been mulling participating in the Taipei mayoral election next year.
The Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that Su, persuaded by party members, has been weighing up a decision to run in the election and has recently “shown interest” in throwing his hat into the race.
Quoting an anonymous DPP source, the report said a DPP heavyweight urged Su to run in the election because it would help his chances of being re-elected as party chairman next year, as well as being nominated for the 2016 presidential election.
“Chairman Su has not been thinking about it, nor has he shown interest in participating in the election as the media reported,” DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said.
Currently there are four DPP aspirants for the party’s primary for the Taipei election: former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), Taipei City Council deputy speaker Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) and lawyer Wellington Ku (顧立雄).
Wang reiterated that Su, as chairman, has been concentrating on DPP primaries in all constituencies across the country to make sure the primaries are run smoothly.
The United Evening News report cited a recent public opinion poll saying that Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), director of the National Taiwan University Hospital’s department of traumatology, who is a pro-green camp independent, has been leading the pan-green camp aspirants, with Lu ranking second and Ku third.
Yet none could match up to former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) of the pan-blue camp, who has so far remained silent about his plans, the report said.