The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is preparing for November’s local elections by mobilizing party members to take on leadership and supporting roles in cities and electoral districts nationwide, party officials have said.
Among the DPP’s 61 incumbent legislators, seven have been nominated as city mayor or county commissioner candidates, party officials said.
In addition, 31 incumbent DPP legislators, along with independent legislators Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書), have been tasked with other key roles, officials said.
Six of them would be taking on roles as campaign directors or managers outside of their electoral districts, as the DPP is mobilizing the whole party, and there are different strategies depending on the situation in each electoral district, they said.
The six are: DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘); legislators Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), Lai Ping-yu (賴品妤) and Wu Chi-ming (吳琪銘) from New Taipei City; and legislators-at-large Fan Yun (范雲) and Michelle Lin (林楚茵).
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in her role as party chairperson, has issued a mandate mobilizing all party members, with Ker and Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) acting as lead campaign directors for several key contests. The former would be responsible for the Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli region, and the latter for the Yunlin-Chiayi-Nantou region, officials said.
Ten DPP legislators have joined the campaign team of former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) in the Taipei mayoral race, and 11 would be in Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) team for the New Taipei City mayoral race.
Two DPP legislators would be on Legislator Cheng Yun-peng’s (鄭運鵬) campaign team for the Taoyuan mayor election, while five would join Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) in the Taichung mayoral race, party officials said.
Two legislators would be on Hsu Ting-chen’s (徐定禎) team for the Miaoli County commissioner contest, while Huang Hsiu-fang’s team (黃秀芳) features three legislators for the Changhua County commissioner race, while Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) has four legislators for the Yunlin County commissioner race.
Two indigenous DPP legislators, Chen Ying (陳瑩) and Saidhai Tahovecahe, would be the main campaign directors in their respective lowland and highland indigenous electoral districts.
Other DPP legislators-at-large would be responsible for directing the campaigns for specific social groups, including Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源), who would be in charge of supporting groups from the medical profession, and Lo Mei-ling (羅美玲), who would focus immigrants who have become naturalized citizens.
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