The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) chairperson election officially began yesterday, with some candidates rushing to pick up a candidacy registration form on the first day in hopes of gaining a lead.
Although the KMT’s dwindling influence and relevance in the political arena has reduced public interest in the election, which is scheduled for May 20, the race is actually a significant event worth paying attention to, as it might determine the party’s future.
The fact that this election has seen a record number of candidates — at six so far — suggests that the KMT is now more divided than ever before. Past elections often included strong leadership figures that commanded respect from a majority of KMT members and were the obvious future presidential candidate.
Think of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who was the sole contender in both the 2009 and 2013 KMT chairperson elections, or New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who also faced no challenger in the 2015 chairperson by-election. Both Ma and Chu later became the KMT’s presidential candidates.
So the big question is: Will the winner in the May 20 election manage to win the support of KMT members who vote for the other candidates and to unify the party before next year’s local elections, considered by many a prelude to the 2020 presidential race?
Many ugly things have been said and done even before the official start of the election campaign. Two candidates, KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), have insinuated on multiple occasions that another contender, former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), might have recruited so-called “dummy party members” to increase his chance of winning.
Hung and Hau might not be far off. According to statistics compiled by KMT headquarters, the number of new party members, or existing members who have opted to pay their overdue party membership fee to gain voting rights in the May election, has soared to 451,510 from 226,783 in January.
The increase is clearly due to the election and could trigger a post-election crisis for the party. Losing candidates could cite the unusual growth in the number of party members as an indication of foul play and refuse to concede. Such events by themselves could easily throw the KMT into chaos and make it even more difficult for the party to concentrate on next year’s local elections.
Another crisis brewing in the party is the alleged leak of personal information of new party members. The allegations were made by Hau’s camp, after one of his close aides received Wu’s campaign mail only two months after joining the party.
Although Hung has vowed to get to the bottom of the case, she is also suspected of being the one who leaked the information to Wu’s camp in the first place, in order to then use the incident to undermine the reputation of the former vice president, who several polls said is leading the race.
Whether the KMT chooses to work on finding the perpetrator of the alleged leak or simply waits until the scandal dies down could set the tone for the upcoming elections. If the party opts for the latter, it risks sending the message that foul play is accepted and that intra-party democracy only exists on the surface.
In any case, each one of the chairperson candidates should tread carefully, because decisions made today could have profound impacts on the party tomorrow.
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