The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Thursday expelled former Legislator and founding member Cheng Pao-ching (???) from the party, one week after Cheng registered to run for Taoyuan mayor in November’s local government elections.
The decision to strip Cheng, who served as a legislator from 1996-2002 and again from 2016-2020, of his party membership was made unanimously by the DPP’s Central Review Committee at a meeting on Thursday afternoon, according to committee member Lai Jui-lung (???).
Speaking to the local media after the meeting, Lai, who is also a legislator, said Cheng’s bid to run in Taoyuan, where the DPP already nominated Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (???) as the party’s candidate, severely violated party rules.
Cheng registered to run for Taoyuan mayor at the city’s election commission on Sept. 1, saying at the time that he would run an “independent” election campaign.
Lai stressed that the DPP is a political party that values unity and discipline and therefore it would “never accept” a member running for public office against the will of the party.
In addition to Cheng, the committee also decided to expel another 25 members who registered to run as city councilors in Taiwan’s six special municipalities despite not being nominated by the party, Lai said.
Cheng, 67, later commented that his expulsion from the party showed that the DPP has “turned its back on” the values to which it once subscribed, including democracy, freedom, the rule of law and human rights.
Stressing that he “loves the DPP and loves Taoyuan,” Cheng, who has been a party member since its establishment in 1986, criticized implicitly President Tsai Ing-wen (???), who concurrently serves as DPP chairwoman, for picking her preferred candidates for the local government elections scheduled for Nov. 26.
The nomination process is full of “closed-door negotiations” and backroom deals, he argued, without elaborating.
Cheng went on to say that he would not back down in the face of “an unjust regime” and push forward with his campaign.
Cheng’s expulsion marked the latest episode in the ruling party’s turbulent bid to hang onto power in Taoyuan, where the DPP’s Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (???) has headed the government for the past eight years but is restricted by term limits from running again.
The party’s current candidate for the Taoyuan mayoral election is Cheng Yun-peng, who was first elected as a legislator in 2005 and has served in the same role since 2016.
The 49-year-old legislator was selected by the party to run in the city in mid-August, after former Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (???), the DPP’s original pick for the mayoral race, withdrew from the election due to plagiarism scandals.
Commenting on the latest incident, Cheng Wen-tsan told reporters Thursday that he respected it when someone chose “a different path,” but said the DDP is a team in which every member must work according to common values and convictions.
As for the DPP’s bid in the Taoyuan mayoral election, the mayor expressed “confidence” in Cheng Yun-peng, who he said had ratcheted up support after starting his election campaign, citing the most recent polls.
Cheng Wen-tsan, who has been rallying support for Cheng Yun-peng to compete with Simon Chang (???) of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Lai Hsiang-ling (???) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), said he believed DPP members and voters in the city would make a “wise choice.”
Similarly, Taoyuan City Councilor Yang Chia-liang (???) estimated that Cheng Pao-ching’s entry into the Taoyuan mayoral race would not undermine Cheng Yun-peng’s election campaign but rather further unite DPP supporters by encouraging them to back the party’s official candidate.
Cheng Pao-ching will only appeal to those who hate the DPP and thus win over votes that would have gone to the KMT or TPP candidates, Yang told CNA.
Also on Thursday, the KMT, the main opposition party in Taiwan, decided to expel eight members who had registered their candidacy for the upcoming elections without the party’s nomination, including Miaoli County Council speaker Chung Tung-chin (???), who has registered to run in the election for magistrate of that county.
At the same time, Hualien City Mayor Wei Chia-hsien (???) had his KMT membership revoked for registering to run for the position of Hualien county councilor, the party said.
According to the KMT, those whose membership is revoked cannot rejoin the party for a period of three years, while those who are expelled cannot do so for six years.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel