Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's request to rejoin the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party was approved Wednesday following a party meeting, with his office expressing Chen's gratitude to the DPP for letting him rejoin the party.
"He loves the DPP and believes in the DPP...As a member of the big family, he will forever be a volunteer for the party," Chen's office said in a statement.
The majority of DPP members supported the former president, who is serving a 20-year jail sentence for corruption, in Wednesday's meeting, paving the way for his return to the DPP.
Chen withdrew from the DPP in August 2008 before the party could strip him off his membership, following a series of corruption allegations.
While DPP members who withdraw from the party can reapply any time, those who are stripped off their membership must wait for five years before a reapplication can be considered.
Chen and DPP officials have claimed that the former president's incarceration is a political vendetta by the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT)-led government to punish Chen for his Taiwan independence stance and to please China.
Chen began serving his sentence in December 2010, making him the first former head of state to be jailed in Taiwan.
He ended the KMT's more than 50-year rule in 2000. After eight years in power, his DPP lost both the presidential and legislative polls in 2008.
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