Taipei Mayor Fun-n-games

The KMT machine continues to grind smoothly on, while the DPP appears to be unable to find its collective excretory orifice with a map and a flashlight. The Taipei Times reported yesterday that the DPP is still discussing who it might run for Taipei mayor in the upcoming election.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday denied speculation that he would enter the Taipei mayoral election, as DPP members voted in the first part of primaries to choose candidates for the Taipei and Kaohsiung city elections.

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In Taipei, the DPP was left without a candidate because no one registered for the primary.

After former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said last Wednesday that he had no intention of joining the Taipei mayoral election race and that the DPP should not wait for him, some speculated that Yu planned to run for the position.

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But Yu yesterday said he would not contest the election.

"No one has talked about it [a run for the Taipei mayorship] with me and I have never had this kind of plan, either," Yu said in Ilan County, where he voted in the primaries.

"Now that I am the chairman of the DPP, a position that takes on huge responsibility, I will not escape from it," he said.

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Yu said he still expected Hsieh to become the party's Taipei candidate and had been negotiating with him.

"If Hsieh eventually refuses to take the field, the DPP will enlist another candidate through the party's mechanism."

Meanwhile, when asked his opinion about Yu running for Taipei mayor, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said he thought Yu was also a strong candidate and he would support Yu joining the campaign.

The DPP is highly unlikely to win in the mainlander and Blue stronghold of Taipei, so whatever candidate gets thrown into the ring is more or less a sacrifice to the democracy gods. If James Soong, Chairman of the PFP, really does enter the race in all seriousness and splits the pan-Blue vote between a PFP and KMT candidate, that might allow the DPP candidate a real shot at the mayor's seat. Meanwhile the KMT machine purred through its primary:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chose Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) as its candidate for the Taipei mayoral election yesterday, with Hau winning a 60 percent support rate from party members and Taipei residents in the party's primary.

Hau, a former Environmental Protection Administration chief, won the primary with an overall 59.68 percent rate of support. His rival, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), scored a 40.31 percent support rating.

The winner was decided through a telephone survey and a vote among members, with the survey accounting for 70 percent of the final outcome and voting making up 30 percent. The party conducted a random telephone poll from May 21 to May 23, followed by a vote by members yesterday.

Ting, however, won the most support among party members, attracting 10,730 votes yesterday compared with Hau's 6,412. The voter turnout rate was 38.7 percent. But Hau won the most support in three surveys conducted by three different polling firms, with an average 60 percent of those polled backing him, while Ting received an average support rate of 30.76 percent.

The interesting fact about this article is buried toward the end:

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier yesterday expressed his expectation for the party to remain harmonious during the primary, and urged KMT members to support the final candidate.

"I hope all party members will support the party's nominee whether or not they supported him before," Ma said after voting at Chin Hsin Elementary School.

Hau cast his vote with his father, former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), while Ting accompanied former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to vote.

Hau was the head of the EPA when during the Chen Administration and is the son of the reactionary mainlander politician who served in numerous posts in the old regime. He thus is attractive to members of both the Blue and Green camps, "Blue skin and a green head" is one way he is often described. When criticized by Blues for working for Chen, he retorted that he was working for Taiwan, an answer that did much to make him look centrist. He did take a hit for allegedly mismanaging the plastic bag policy, but that was bumbling, not corruption, and thus forgiveable. As for Ting, all you have to do is look who voted with him: two-time Presidential loser Lien Chan. It's clear he was the party insiders' man.

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