Tsai Yi-yu set to be nominated by DPP as Chiayi magistrate candidate

Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) is set to be nominated by his party as its Chiayi County magistrate candidate after securing a decisive victory in the party's county magistrate primary.

In the primary, determined by opinion polls conducted by three polling firms Tuesday night, Tsai performed far better against the likely Kuomintang candidate, Legislator Wang Yu-min (王育敏), than the other candidate vying for the DPP nomination, Chiayi County Councilor Huang Jung-li (黃榮利).

Both Tsai and Huang easily beat Wang in the polls, but Tsai won by a much bigger margin of victory. He garnered 64.8 percent support against Wang's 14.2 percent, while Huang received 38.1 percent, compared with Wang's 16.3 percent.

The polls, conducted Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. by landline, collected 1,200 valid samples.

Tsai is expected to be formally nominated by the DPP at its Central Executive Committee meeting on Jan. 21.

Meanwhile, the DPP is scheduled to conduct polls for its Tainan mayoral primary on Wednesday night, in which DPP lawmakers Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) are vying to represent the DPP in the mayoral race in the traditional DPP stronghold.

The result of the Tainan poll will be announced at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Lawmaker Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) won the DPP's Kaohsiung mayoral primary on Tuesday, defeating three other candidates, all of them lawmakers representing parts of the city in the Legislative Yuan.

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 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 Chiayi County.

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