In Tang Funian’s Viewpoint, the Sixth Legislative Committee’s battle situation, the green camp Jiang Zhaoguo’s battle position, Luo Tingwei’s layout, and the blue camp’s situation in chaos

2023-04-24 12:01:20

Newtalk news

The results of the primary election for the Green Camp in the sixth constituency of the Taichung Legislative Committee have been released, and Jiang Zhaoguo, a young and strong generation of city councilors who have dominated the city for three consecutive times, won. The fierce primary election means that Jiang Zhaoguo can complete his warm-up early and be ready to fight at any time; on the other hand, the Blue Camp is not only a presidential candidate The recruitment process has not yet been completed, and the city councilor Luo Tingwei, who is actively preparing for the legislature, has left the primary election empty-handed.

The 45-year-old Jiang Zhaoguo has been elected as a Taichung City Councilor for three consecutive terms since 2014, but “election” has been his daily routine since he was a child. His father Jiang Zhengji entered politics more than 40 years ago, and the father and son have been elected to the Taichung City Councilor more than 10 times. On stage, Jiang Zhaoguo was the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party. In fact, his father, Jiang Zhengji, originally belonged to the Zhang faction of the Kuomintang. The operation of the central and western districts of the site has long crossed the blue-green camp.

Jiang Zhengji, Jiang Zhaoguo and his son ran for Taichung City Councilors more than 10 times.Tang Funian/photo

Jiang Zhaoguo is a master of political research at National Chengchi University. He once served as an assistant to the Congress under the appointment of Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Qimaili. The chief convener of the city council party group made him one of the opinion leaders in the National Assembly and even among the Taichung city councilors who are pro-democracy.

Jiang Zhaoguo’s next goal was to gain a firm foothold in the local councilors from his background as an assistant to the Congress, and then to enter the Congress. Legislator Huang Guoshu decided to “withdraw from the CCP” in October last year due to the informant case. Although Huang Guoshu actively participated in the secondary elections for mayor and city councilors in the following year, it was once interpreted that he might be re-elected by the DPP. Although Jiang Zhaoguo, who is a junior in the political arena, cannot warm up for the legislature election with great fanfare, he can be seen in many private occasions in the southeast constituency after he is re-elected. The combination of deep qualifications and early start is the key to Jiang Zhaoguo’s victory in the primary election.

The combination of deep qualifications and early start is the key to Jiang Zhaoguo’s victory in the primary election.Jiang Zhaoguo/provided

The DPP has won four times in a row in three general elections for legislative members and one by-election in the sixth constituency. If there is no case of Huang Guoshu’s informant, this area will still be a green camp iron vote area. In terms of the number of city councilors, the blue battalion was still able to beat the green battalion 4:3 in 2010, and was reversed by the green battalion to 5:2 in 2014. In 2018, the momentum of the blue battalion picked up slightly, and newcomer Luo Tingwei took the newly added seat in the southeast district In 2022, Luo Tingwei won the highest number of votes again, and the number of blue and green MPs was finally evened to 4:4.

After the local general election on November 26 last year, the hottest topic in Taichung political circles was “Will Huang Guoshu be re-elected?” Opposition within the Democratic Progressive Party also continued to rise due to Huang Guoshu’s delay in expressing his views. In contrast to Luo Tingwei, who still carried a large billboard to thank voters after the election, as if he had become the “savior” of the blue camp in this constituency, which caused great anxiety among the grassroots of the green camp.

Luo Tingwei walked around the constituency carrying a large billboard to thank voters.Luo Tingwei/provided

Huang Guoshu decided not to be re-elected in mid-March. When Luying Jiang Zhaoguo, Huang Shouda, and He Kunlin started the primary election, Luo Tingwei was not idle. He not only appeared in the parent-child activities held by Huang Guoshu, but also generously stood on the stage and lined up with the green camp civil representatives and candidates. They took a group photo and even publicly expressed their support for He Kunlin, who is also from the southeast constituency. On the contrary, during the three days when the Kuomintang registered for the primary election, Luo Tingwei suddenly turned low-key and did not register. The title of the green camp telephone poll set him as an imaginary enemy, and it was too late to change it, which became an unexpected episode of the green camp primary election.

There are various reasons for Luo Tingwei’s failure to register, including that senior politicians in the constituency openly opposed him to run for a legislator, and it was even rumored that some people were actively collecting information that was unfavorable to him. However, as early as January this year, he said in an exclusive interview with “New Head Shell” that “if the primary election is held, he will not register.” He hopes that if the party wants to recruit, it should seriously develop a fair mechanism. Opinion polls cannot only be based on “popularity”, because it has happened before that senior politicians won the polls because of their high popularity, but lost in the general election. A reasonable mechanism must be used to allow people who voters can identify with to represent the KMT Win next year’s legislative elections.

Luo Tingwei actively participated in the primary elections of the green camp, and was referred to by Huang Shouda as “the volume of noise”.Huang Shouda/provided

The Kuomintang currently has only one way to recruit in the sixth constituency. Local rumors have it that deputy mayor Wang Yumin is a possible candidate. As early as Wang Yumin took office, the DPP believed that Wang Yumin would be a viable candidate. Among the eight legislative constituencies in Taichung, the first (Dajia, Daan, Waipu, Qingshui, Wuqi) and the seventh (Tali, Taiping) are the real difficult constituencies for the Kuomintang. , it’s no different from being cannon fodder, if you invest in the sixth constituency, at least you still have a chance to fight.

After a month of fierce primary elections in the green camp, Jiang Zhaoguo was not lucky to win at all. According to the DPP’s tradition of “competition before the election and unity after the election”, Jiang Zhaoguo has taken a big step forward from successfully taking over Huang Guoshu’s stick; If the KMT fails to launch a powerful stick with combat effectiveness and a foundation of public opinion as soon as possible, it may miss the best opportunity to regain its seats in the Legislative Council, which has been rare for more than a decade.

Further reading:

Jiang Zhaoguo delivered his election victory speech: Assisting President Lai Qingde in winning the election

In Tang Funian’s Viewpoints, the primary elections of the six legislators, blue and green, have internal conflicts, and the super war zone is yet to come.