President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) effort on Friday night to mediate a solution among the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) four presidential hopefuls failed as party Chairman Yu Shyi-kun stuck to his guns, insisting that a primary be held to determine the party's presidential candidate next year.
With no results achieved at Friday's meeting, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
Chen invited Vice President Annette Lu (
It was the first such meeting since the four aspirants completed their registration earlier this week for the party's presidential primary.
During the hour-long meeting, Lu, Su and Hsieh conceded that the presidential candidate could be named through negotiations, rather than a primary election, sources said, adding that Yu was the only one who disagreed.
Yu told reporters yesterday that it would be quite difficult for the president to mediate a solution because "everybody's policies are very different."
Yu said he understood that the president hoped to simplify the nomination process.
"However, our policies are all different, so there are four voices. Each one of them is valuable," Yu said. "I insisted that we should screen the best candidate for the DPP through a primary."
"I will, however, support the winner of the primary if I do not win," Yu said, adding that as friends and party associates for decades, he believed the competition "will be clean and fair."
Yu also defended his support for a pimary, saying he had no intention of disrupting party unity.
"I believe that the party can only be united if the candidate is produced by a democratic system," he said, while urging the other three to sign a pledge stating they would not withdraw from the party if they failed to win the party's nomination.
Lu yesterday refused to describe the meeting as "a negotiation."
"The president only asked the four of us to win the 2008 presidential election, no matter which one of us becomes the DPP's candidate," Lu said. "We only shared our views. It was not really a negotiation."
"I have been the vice president for seven years. I think it would not be a ridiculous request to ask for a chance to let this country have a female president," she added.
Su, expressing confidence in his chance to represent the party, said that the DPP would lose the election if negotiations failed.
"It will be a sign that we cannot stand and fight together if this coordination fails," Su said. "I sincerely hope that our relationship will not be affected because of this because our enemies are out there, not inside the DPP."
Party cooperation and harmony should be the priority, he added.
"If the DPP fails, every DPP member will fail," he said.
Hsieh said yesterday that he totally agreed with the president's idea of using negotiations rather than a primary to choose a candidate.
Chiou said that if mediation continued to fail, a primary would be held to settle the issue.
Based on the DPP's charter, a party primary should be held if negotiations fail.
Party members will vote on May 6, after which a series of public opinion polls will be conducted. Party members' votes are weighted to comprise 30 percent of a candidate's score, with public polls accounting for the remaining 70 percent. The presidential aspirant who receives the highest approval rating will be named as the party's presidential candidate on May 30.
also see story:
Taiwan Society's schedule for DPP debates finalized
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
Air and rail traffic around Taiwan were disrupted today while power cuts occurred across the country as Typhoon Kong-rey, predicted to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon, continued edging closer to the country. A total of 241 passenger and cargo flights departing from or arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were canceled today due to the typhoon, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. As of 9:30am, 109 inbound flights, 103 outbound flights and 29 cargo flights had been canceled, the company said. Taiwan Railway Corp also canceled all express trains on its Western Trunk Line, Eastern Trunk Line, South-Link Line and attached branches
Typhoon Kong-rey is forecast to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon and would move out to sea sometime overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 9am today, Kong-rey's outer rim was covering most of Taiwan except for the north. The storm's center was 110km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, and moving northwest at 28kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 184kph, and gusts of up to 227kph, the CWA said. At a news conference this morning, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said Kong-rey is moving "extremely fast," and is expected to make landfall between
RSS