Legislator Lai Jui-lung wins DPP Kaohsiung mayoral primary

Taipei, Jan. 13 (CNA) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) has won the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Kaohsiung mayoral primary, setting him up to be formally nominated by the party later this month to compete in Taiwan's year-end local elections, the DPP said Tuesday.

The 52-year-old, three-term lawmaker placed first in a field of four that also included legislators Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) based on telephone polling of Kaohsiung residents Monday evening.

The results of the poll, conducted by three polling organizations and based on at least 1,200 valid responses, found that Lai would fare best in a head-to-head matchup against likely Kuomintang (KMT) opponent Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), defeating her by a 55.99 percent to 24.89 percent margin, the DPP said.

Lai's results were narrowly better than Chiu's, who polled at 55.38 percent-24.66 percent against Ko, while Hsu and Lin polled 51.90 percent-25.14 percent and 50.59 percent-21.75 percent, respectively, against Ko, coming in third and fourth, the party said.

Lai, who worked as a legislative aide after finishing graduate school, later served as head of the Kaohsiung City government's information and marine bureaus during the tenure of DPP Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).

Since 2016, he has represented a Kaohsiung-based district in the Legislature, winning at least 57 percent of the votes in three elections.

Lai's candidacy faced a major hurdle last month, when local media reported that his son had been involved in bullying incidents at school. Lai later held a press conference to apologize for the alleged behavior, but ultimately decided to stay in the race.

DPP primary system

The DPP employs a hybrid system for picking mayoral and magistrate nominees, sometimes having the party directly select a candidate and sometimes holding primaries using telephone polling.

In mayor/county chief primaries, pollsters ask residents to compare each candidate against an opponent (rather than merely choosing their favorite candidate), with the person with the best results winning the nomination.

In the current run-up to Taiwan's local elections in November, the DPP has opted to internally select most of its candidates for KMT-held or KMT-leaning municipalities, including in New Taipei, Miaoli, Taichung and Keelung, among others.

Meanwhile, it has organized primaries in races where an incumbent DPP mayor or magistrate is leaving office, such as in Kaohsiung, as well as in Tainan and Chiayi County, where DPP polling to select nominees will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, respectively.

With his primary win, Lai's nomination will now go to the DPP's Central Executive Committee for approval on Jan. 21.

Taiwan will hold its next local elections to choose city and county chiefs and city and county councilors on Nov. 28.