2026 Local Elections: Taiwan People's Party Will Not Nominate Candidate for Changhua County Magistrate

(Central News Agency, Taipei, June 3) The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Election Decision Committee issued a statement today, announcing that after listening to the recommendations of the Changhua County Party Branch and conducting a careful evaluation, the committee members unanimously decided not to nominate a candidate for this year's Changhua County Magistrate election. As local elections are about to begin, former TPP legislator Tsai Pi-ju's expressed interest in running for Changhua County Magistrate has sparked discussion. The TPP Election Decision Committee's statement indicated that after hearing Tsai Pi-ju's expression of intent to run, Changhua County Party Branch Director Wen Tsung-yu, representing the local party branch, recommended that the Central Party and the Election Decision Committee respect local practicalities, leading to the formal decision not to nominate a candidate for this year's Changhua County Magistrate election. The statement noted that the Election Decision Committee, considering the local party branch's assessment, local organizational development, and objective data, concluded that hastily entering a resource-intensive county magistrate election at this stage would make it difficult to effectively harness grassroots energy and could potentially compress the development space for local councilors, representatives, and grassroots organizations. Therefore, the party will fully assist already nominated candidates for councilors and representatives, expand local service networks, to better meet Changhua's overall development needs. The statement also referenced that after the 2024 legislative election, Tsai Pi-ju publicly stated she had "fallen deeply in love with the Taichung coastal area and will continue to cultivate the area in the future," emphasizing "what I have said, I will definitely do." The Election Decision Committee believes that politicians' commitments to voters should not be easily changed due to electoral considerations. The statement further pointed out that according to the "2026 Joint Governance and Local Election Cooperation Agreement" previously signed between the TPP and the Kuomintang (KMT), the areas for integrated discussion did not include Changhua. The KMT has already formally nominated lawyer Wei Ping-cheng as its candidate for Changhua County Magistrate. Therefore, considering the local party branch's assessment, the importance of commitments to voters, and the overall election strategy, the Election Decision Committee unanimously agreed that the TPP's most important task at this stage is to continue cultivating local areas steadily, investing limited resources in grassroots organization management, and expanding the number of local councilors, township/city representatives, and village/borough chiefs, rather than hastily nominating a candidate for Changhua County Magistrate. The statement also announced that the Election Decision Committee decided not to nominate a candidate in the Zhongli District of Taoyuan City this year. Among the three individuals who had previously expressed interest in running, Mao Chia-ching and Chang Ching-chun have already announced their withdrawal from the primary, while a separate decision has been made regarding Lin Chao-yin's case. Considering that all TPP nominees represent the party's image and commitments to voters, the committee decided not to nominate a candidate in the Zhongli District. TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang also stated in a press release that the party will continue to uphold the spirit of rationality, pragmatism, and science to cultivate local areas, defend the municipalities governed by the opposition, expand the opposition's oversight power, and build a more robust democratic politics and local governance for Taiwan. (Editors: Lin Ke-lun, Lin Hsing-meng) 1150603