Minor parties with progressive agendas aim to build alliances to gain leverage amid an explosion of candidates for next year’s legislative elections.
The New Power Party (NPP) said that it is seeking cooperation with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported recently.
The NPP expressed its desire to coordinate with the DPP to avoid nominating candidates in the same constituencies, NPP founding member and lawyer Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) was quoted as saying in talks with the DPP on Monday.
The NPP aims to finalize its nominees by the end of this month, Lin said.
The DPP has not yet made an official response to the proposal.
If the alliance fails to materialize, NPP-nominated human rights lawyer Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) could face DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in Hsinchu.
By law, a political party must nominate a minimum of 10 district legislative candidates to nominate legislator-at-large candidates.
The NPP in a statement on Wednesday said it welcomed cooperation with any groups that shared its goal of “triumphing over the traditional party-state interest structure.”
The news followed earlier remarks by the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) Urda Yen (嚴婉玲), who said that the SDP — a new center-left party set to be launched by the end of this month — is considering an alliance with the environmental issue-based Green Party.
Independence activist and Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) has also announced his intentions to launch a new political party.
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