The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Executive Committee last night passed a preliminary list of legislator-at-large nominees for the Jan. 11 elections after nearly five hours of negotiations, party sources said.
The sources had initially said that the first three candidates on the list would be former Taiwan Indigenous TV host Tuhi Martukaw, Nantou County Councilor Lo Mei-ling (羅美玲) and Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰).
The initial list included 15 candidates, although it was numbered through 17, because the 13th and 16th positions had been left unfilled, the sources said.
Photo courtesy of the Green Party Taiwan
However, a version with 34 candidates was released at about 8pm, listing DPP Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴), Hung and former Social Democratic Party convener Fan Yun (范雲) as the top three candidates, with Lo fourth.
Tuhi was not included.
DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) was scheduled to hold a news conference late last night to explain the party’s decision.
The Green Party Taiwan earlier yesterday announced its five nominees: psychologist Teng Hui-wen (鄧惠文), Green Party Taiwan founding convener Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎), Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇), lawyer Lee Ching-chi (李菁琪) and iLOHAS cofounder Baggio Chang (張佑輔).
The New Power Party (NPP) had also approached Teng regarding a nomination, but she chose to stand for the Green Party Taiwan because it has members she has known since she was a student and because its values are similar to her own, the Green Party Taiwan said, adding that it was confident it would win at least two seats.
The NPP’s preliminary list of 12 nominees was released on Tuesday.
It included NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), former NPP chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) and Claire Wang (王婉諭), whose four-year-old daughter, nicknamed “Little Light Bulb” (小燈泡), was murdered on a street in Taipei in 2016.
Final versions of each party’s list of legislator-at-large nominees are to be released by the Central Election Commission.
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