Su Tseng-chang Winns DPP Chairperson election

Monday May 28, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Of the five contestants for the somewhat dubious but certainly challenging position of chairperson of the DPP, Su Tseng-chang came out victorious. He not only was victorious but he won by 50.47 per cent of the vote, an important factor in a five man race. This meant that even if the other four candidates had teamed up and ran as one person, he still would have beaten that one candidate. The turnout rate was 68.62 per cent--a respectable turnout for such an election.

Su's victory makes him the uncontested winner; but it is even more so that his closest competitor was another Su, Su Huan-chih who had 21.02 per cent of the vote. The rest of the vote was split between Wu Rong-i at 14.73 per cent; Chai Trong-rong at 11.28 per cent and Hsu Hsin-liang at 2.49 per cent.

Before the voting, Su Tseng-chang had stated that whomever won, that person should make one of his top priorities a unification of the party--no small task. While some pundits may be speculating about 2014 and even who will run in the 2016 presidential election, such speculation is peripheral in politics where six months is a long time and much can happen within such a frame. The main and immediate goal should be to unify the party and put it in the right direction.