Mark Chen, Tainan Municipality New Primary, The Voters will Decide!

Wednesday September 02, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The merging of Tainan City with Tainan County to create the Tainan Municipality will be inaugurated on Dec. 25 of next year. Thus the election for the Magistrate of the Municipality will be held near the end of 2010; this has helped the DPP out of one tight spot and put the ball back with the voters. What am I talking about? It means that a new primary will need to be held and all are starting from scratch.

As the DPP seeks its candidate, one of them will be Mark Chen who had previously looked like he might be running as an independent. In the new scenario, the DPP candidate will be selected from the winner with the highest points from the following two polls. 30 per cent from party members only in the merged area and 70 per cent from the public poll of voters in the merged area.

What combination will win for whom? Who can tell? but in a private conversation, Mark Chen has told me his hat will definitely be in the ring in the DPP primary. Mark will then abide by the will of the people in Tainan as to whom will be the DPP candidate. I presume the DPP will follow the same pledge. Let the campaigning begin.