TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A large number of protesters gathered outside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters on Wednesday (May 29) demanding a fair primary as the Central Executive Committee resumed talks on how the presidential nomination process should proceed.

The first round of discussions last week failed to produce an agreement over the mechanism on ways to determine the presidential candidate for the ruling party in next year’s elections. Sticking points include whether to adopt cellphone polling and whether to include comparisons with rival hopefuls.

Some hard-core DPP supporters took the podium to call for the revival of what they described as the party spirit, including Taiwan Society Chairman Chang Yeh-sen (張葉森), retired president of Taipei National University of the Arts Yang Chyi-wen (楊其文), and psychiatrist and politician Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興).

In a rousing speech, Chen, who once served as the head of Taiwan Association for Human Rights, castigated incumbent Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for her lackluster administrative performance. He also expressed discontent over the Tsai administration’s transitional justice measures and blamed it for moves that jeopardized freedom of speech, one of them being the termination of the political talk show "Jeng Chin on FTV53" (政經看民視).

Tsai Ing-wen and ex-premier William Lai (賴清德), the two contenders for the party’s presidential candidacy, reportedly met on Tuesday (May 28) in a closed-door meeting trying to end the primary deadlock. Lai has proposed that he would step aside should Tsai beat Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the most likely Kuomintang hopeful, in opinion polls.

Taiwan Society Chairman Chang Yeh-sen (張葉森)(Photo/Jasper Wu)

Retired president of Taipei National University of the Arts Yang Chyi-wen (楊其文)(Photo/Jasper Wu)

Psychiatrist and politician Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興)(Photo/Jasper Wu)