Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has joined the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislative primary, signing up for the primary in the party’s Keelung office yesterday.
Hau went to the party’s Keelung office with his personal ID, party membership card and a NT$100,000 check to sign up for the primary yesterday, days after a media report said he had postponed signing up due to opposition from Keelung KMT members.
KMT Keelung City Councilor Lu Mei-ling (呂美玲), one of the potential primary contenders, was also present to announce her withdrawal from the primary and call on her supporters to back Hau.
“Only when the KMT is good can Keelung and Taiwan be good as well,” said Lu, mimicking and reversing a slogan popular among young people that says: “Only when the KMT is down can Taiwan be good.”
Lu said that Hau is competent, sincere and has plenty of administrative experience.
The KMT cannot afford to be divided, so she decided to give up joining the party’s primary and support Hau after a night of deliberation, Lu added.
Lu said that she wanted to make Keelung better through her withdrawal, and that she would support Hau so he can procure more projects for the city in the legislature.
Hau said Lu met with him on Friday night, informing him of the local situation and expressing her willingness to help, which was immensely helpful for him in securing the nomination in the primary, he added.
Hau said there are two reasons he came to Keelung: For the KMT to show solidarity and win the election, and to make Keelung a better place.
Hau added that Lu agrees with him that only through solidarity can the KMT secure victory and that he would have people accept the primary result via a democratic process.
Hau said that he never exerted pressure on the local office as the party’s vice chairman, as he has insisted from the beginning that democracy, rather than top-down recruitment, is the best way to secure the party’s legislative candidate nomination.
Hau said he has noticed that many candidates for the constituency spent a lot of time cultivating support bases when he visited the district before decided on participating in the competition.
“I have to respect the effort they have made and obtain the nomination through the primary,” he said.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
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