Thu, Jan 14, 2016 page3

• ELECTIONS: NPP pushes back against DPP

  IN ITS OWN RIGHT: Huang Kuo-chang said the two parties had nominated outstanding at-large legislative candidates, so voters should cast their ballots based on policy issues

  • By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
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  The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday pushed back against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) calls for “pan-green camp” voters to “concentrate” their votes in Saturday’s legislative elections, although it refrained from directly criticizing the DPP.

  “When we say that we want a ‘new politics,’ we do not want to get bogged down in the manipulative methods of old politics, so we absolutely will not criticize parties whose ideas are similar to ours nor will we issue a call for voters to ‘allocate ballots,” Acting NPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.

  Ballot allocation refers to voters coordinating to strategically divide their ballots among ideologically similar parties or candidates, the way the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) called on pan-green households to “allocate” at least one ballot to the TSU during the 2012 elections.

  

  New Power Party (NPP) Chairman and legislative candidate Huang Kuo-chang, second right, and the party’s six legislator-at-large candidates yesterday pose at a news conference in Taipei to ask voters to give the NPP their party vote on Saturday. The party’s ballot number is 11.

  Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times

  The DPP over the past week has repeatedly called on voters to “concentrate” their at-large ballots on itself, saying that support for small “third force” parties threatens to undermine the “safe” seats on its at-large legislative slate.

  Huang said the DPP and NPP had nominated “outstanding” at-large legislative slates, and he praised the DPP for recruiting many prominent activists.

  He called on voters to look into each party’s slates over the next few days and vote NPP if they agreed with its policy stances.

  The NPP’s six at-large candidates also issued a series of statements reiterating their policy stances and reasons for seeking election, while rebutting rumors that a high level of support for the party could lead to wasted votes.

  “It is important to call for support because recently there have been fliers stating that we have too many votes — my position is actually quite dangerous,” said National Taiwan economics professor Jang Show-ling (鄭秀玲), who ranks third on the NPP’s list.

  Film director Ko I-chen (柯一正) — who ranks sixth — brushed off concerns that votes could be wasted if the party allocated more seats than its number of nominations.

  The NPP already faces a “difficult task” because it guaranteed that he would be elected, Ko said.

  When asked how his party would relate to the DPP after the elections, Huang said that it would support important DPP reforms while also serving as a watchdog in the legislature.

  In terms of its legislative priorities, the NPP plans to focus on regulating the executive transition of power, before pushing for constitutional, pension and tax reform, he said.

  The NPP also announced that it will hold a series of campaign events at train and bus stations nationwide tomorrow night to encourage people to return to their place of household registration to vote.
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