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RULING PARTY TO REFLECT UPON ITSELF FOR FRESH START

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-05 22:34:55

    Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) Major factions within the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Monday they will accept the electorate's decision on the party with humility and engage in serious "soul-searching" before making a fresh start.

    They made the remarks following the crushing defeat of the DPP in Saturday's city and county chief elections during which the party only managed to garner six seats out of 23 up for grabs, compared with 14 seats taken by the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT).

    Gao Jyh-peng, secretary-general of the Justice Alliance faction, which is closely related to President Chen Shui-bian, said he supports reforms and that everyone in the party should pool their wisdom to try to bring the party out of the woods.

    Legislator Lin Cho-shui of the New Tide faction said that whether the Cabinet is reshuffled or the premier changed, the party should respect the power of the president, although he expressed the hope that Chen will give the Cabinet a free hand to do what it sees fit so that he will have time to think about long-term matters.

    Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung of the Welfare State faction said a Cabinet reshuffle should start after the Legislative Yuan completes its review of the government budget, and that the scale of the reshuffle should give the people a "fresh feeling" of the party.

    President Chen had yet to make public appearance since Saturday's debacle. He canceled his scheduled itinerary Monday morning amid reports that he was discussing the post-election situation with high-ranking party and government officials.

    Responding to Legislator Lin Chung-mo's suggestion that opposition People First Party Chairman James Soong serve as premier after the elections, Gao said there is zero possibility of such an outlandish proposal being made.

    Gao noted that KMT candidate Lu Kuo-hua trampled DPP candidate Chen Ding-nan in the Ilan county magistrate election, breaking a DPP stronghold of 24 years in the northeastern county.

    He said Chen Ding-nan garnered more votes than popular Ilan County Magistrate Liu Shou-cheng when he sought another term four years ago, but Chen still lost to Lu.

    He attributed Lu's performance to what he described as the "Ma phenomenon, " referring to the new popular KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, whose presence created a frenzy whenever he stumped for KMT candidates around the island. "The future rival of the DPP is Ma, and the party should consider how to deal with this," he said.

(By Lilian Wu)

ENDITEM/J