The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has drawn criticism over its decision to not nominate a candidate for Hsinchu County commissioner, choosing instead to support a former commissioner who was expelled from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for running without the party’s nomination.
“In order to win the election, the DPP has chosen to work with a local political faction,” Liao Pen-chuan (廖本全), an associate professor at National Taipei University’s Department of Real Estate and Built Environment, said yesterday.
“However, local factions are only concerned about their own interests — how to maximize their interests, divide the [spoils] and further expand their political influence — and do not care about democracy or rule of law,” he said.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
“Therefore, this kind of collaboration is only about winning the election and interests; it would not bring anything fruitful for our democracy — just rot,” the long-time activist said.
Liao was referring to a decision by the DPP’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday to not nominate a candidate for the Hsinchu County commissioner election on Nov. 29. Instead, it has chosen to collaborate with former Hsinchu County commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金), who was expelled from the KMT because he insisted on running despite the party nominating the incumbent commissioner, Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳), for re-election.
Former DPP Hsinchu County commissioner Lin Kuang-hua (林光華), who was defeated by Cheng in his 2001 re-election bid, and again lost to Cheng in 2005, has also agreed to help Cheng in his bid, while Cheng promised to campaign for DPP candidates for the county council.
A voter in Jhubei City (竹北), Hsinchu County, surnamed Huang (黃), also criticized the DPP’s decision.
“The DPP was very critical of the KMT in Hsinchu County, especially when Cheng was the commissioner, so I don’t understand the logic behind its collaboration with the KMT now,” Huang said. “But I’m not surprised at all, this is how politicians and political parties are.”
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