The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday ruled out the possibility of its chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), running for Taipei County commissioner, despite calls within the party for her to join the race.
Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), head of the DPP’s Department of Culture and Communications, said he was not aware of any plan to enter Tsai in the Taipei County race.
Cheng said the DPP realized that Taipei County — the country’s largest administrative region — would be a benchmark in next year’s city and county elections and that the party would ensure it fielded its best candidates.
A survey released yesterday by a group of DPP Taipei County councilwomen said if Tsai were to represent the DPP in the next Taipei County commissioner election, 51.4 percent of voters would vote for her, while only 27.5 percent would support the possible re-election bid of incumbent Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The results showed that Taipei County residents were split over Chou’s performance, with 44.8 percent expressing satisfaction and 41.3 percent voicing dissatisfaction.
Asked to compare Chou with his predecessor, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the DPP, 50.5 percent thought Su performed better than Chou, while 18.7 percent said Chou was better.
The survey was conducted via telephone between Sept. 27 and Sept. 29 among 1,072 Taipei County residents aged 20 and older. It has a margin of error of 3 percent.
Councilwomen Chou Ya-lin (周雅玲) and Li Chien-ping (李倩萍) said the survey results indicated that Tsai was the DPP’s best choice for the Taipei County race and that they would try to persuade her to run for the post.
The councilwomen said the survey was carried out without Tsai’s knowledge. They claimed the results were “highly accurate and objective.”
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