DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei set to run for Tainan mayor

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) is set to be nominated as the party's Tainan mayoral candidate after winning a primary over rival and fellow lawmaker Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲).

A telephone survey conducted Wednesday night showed that Chen outperformed Lin in head-to-head matchups against the likely Kuomintang (KMT) candidate in the Tainan mayoral race, Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介).

Chen garnered 60.86 percent support against Hsieh's 13.86 percent, while Lin received 58.16 percent against Hsieh's 21.65 percent.

Announcing the primary results Thursday morning, DPP spokesperson Han Ying (韓瑩) said both Chen's and Lin's representatives concurred with the results, and she believed that the candidates would come together to help the DPP win the 2026 election.

Similarly, both Chen and Lin called for solidarity in their separate interviews on the primary result.

Meanwhile, Hsieh congratulated Chen on her primary victory and said he hoped the two would compete fairly in the upcoming election.

Chen served as a Tainan city councilor from 1998 to 2008 and was elected to the Legislature during her third term on the council, a post she has held for five terms.

The DPP is expected to convene its Central Executive Committee on Jan. 21 to approve the official nomination.

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 Tainan.

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