Former Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮)

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) Former Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on Wednesday declared her intention to run for Taipei mayor, saying that Taipei citizens deserve a new mayor as the views of the incumbent are blatantly discriminatory toward women.

"I will run to the end," said Lu, 73, a heavyweight member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and a longstanding activist for women's rights.

In announcing her decision to run in the year-end election, Lu said incumbent Taipei Mayor Taipei Mayor Ke Wen-je (柯文哲) has made numerous statements that indicate how he views women.

Ke, a surgeon who was elected on an independent ticket in 2014, has made public statements such as "polygamy is an efficient means of increasing the population," "the obstetrics and gynecology departments make money between women's legs," and "Taiwan has already imported 300,000 foreign brides," Lu said.

Taipei residents deserve a better mayor, she said.

Now that the "Me Too" movement is spreading around the world, Taiwanese women should have their own "Me Too" campaign, exposing the people who have humiliated and ill-treated them, Lu said.

The "Me Too" movement resulted from a hashtag that went viral in the United States in October 2017, in response to a rash of high-profile allegations of sexual assault and harassment by men in positions of power, especially in the workplace.

Lu is the second DPP aspirant to step forward for the 2018 Taipei mayoral election, after Legislator Yao Wen-chih (姚文智). They will both have to compete for their party's support against Ke, who had the DPP's backing in 2014 when he ran as an independent.

(By Yeh Su-ping and Elizabeth Hsu)Enditem/pc