By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday denied a report that they had met on Saturday to discuss the DPP’s chairmanship election in May.
Cable news channel Formosa TV on Monday reported that the pair met on Saturday and that Tsai had urged Hsieh to run for the chairmanship against DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who is expected to seek re-election.
The report said that Tsai and Hsieh working together would help ease the rivalry between between Tsai and Su, who are considered the favorites for the top spot on the DPP presidential ticket in 2016, and also work in Tsai’s favor.
Tsai’s and Hsieh’s offices both issued press releases late on Monday to deny the report.
The two politicians yesterday reiterated that they had not met on Saturday or discussed the chairmanship race.
Asked if she would run for chairperson again, Tsai said she “has not given serious thought to it yet,” as other issues were more urgent, such as those related to people’s livelihood and national policies.
Tsai said she did occasionally meet Hsieh and talked about politics, but they had not discussed the chairmanship race recently.
Hsieh said the only politician he met on Saturday was former DPP lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮).
“The report was incorrect. I really do not think we should make it a complicated issue,” he said.