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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ex-chairman slams DPP for not yielding seats to ‘third force’
Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung, right, demands that a China Times reporter, left, leave a press conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Former Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） chairman Lin I-hsiung （林義雄） yesterday slammed the party for “yielding only 13 electoral districts to the third political force, which is tantamount to declaring them dead.”
Lin, who quit the DPP in 2006 and in April announced his support for the New Power Party （NPP） in next year’s legislative elections, said third-party forces — referring to the NPP and the Social Democratic Party （SDP） — would need to nominate 10 district legislative candidates each to qualify to nominate legislator-at-large candidates.
“There are more than 30 constituencies in which the DPP might face difficulty getting elected. The DPP refraining from nominating candidates in only 13 districts means that it welcomes [the NPP and the SDP] to compete against it for the remaining seven seats [required for the smaller political parties to nominate legislator-at-large candidates],” Lin said.
“[The DPP] is not capable of securing a majority in the legislature by itself, and now, when the third political force wants to join, it blocks their chances,” Lin said.
Lin also criticized the DPP for nominating newly elected Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-chieh （梁文傑） to be one of its legislative candidates, a move Lin described as “thumbing its nose at the voters” and “slighting democratic ethics.”
The former chairman’s attacks did not stop with the legislative candidate. He also raised questions about DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） pledge to “maintain the ‘status quo.’”
“Is it so hard for the chairperson to follow what is stated in the ‘Resolution on Taiwan’s Future’ [in the party’s charter] to describe our relationship with China?” Lin said. “The resolution clearly states that Taiwan is an independent and sovereign nation; if any change is to be made to that status, a referendum is required.”
“What is this status quo [that Tsai has been referring to]? I don’t get it. You have let [President] Ma Ying-jeou （馬英九） pick this up and tout that he is the one who created the status quo,” Lin said.
At the beginning of the news conference, Lin asked if any reporters from the Chinese-language China Times were present. When China Times reporter Yang Shu-mei （楊舒媚） identified herself, Lin asked her to leave, saying that a story by the China Times published yesterday falsely reported in its headline that Tsai had asked him to exercise self-restraint when talking.
“Please leave,” Lin said, repeating himself more than 10 times and threatening to cancel the news conference if Yang did not depart.
After Yang insisted that she had the right to stay as a member of the media, Lin left and asked a volunteer to read a statement that he had prepared in his stead.
The China Times later removed the article Lin mentioned from its Web site.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
