Power shifting toward lawmakers within the KMT

The KMT elected members of its Central Committee and Central Standing Committee yesterday -- with a growing number of lawmakers filling important seats within the party.

In the election of the party's 31 core Central Standing Committee seats, 16 went to lawmakers. Of the 60 lawmakers who stood in the race for Central Committee, 58 were elected. The results of the elections were widely seen as a sign of the growing importance of lawmakers to the party.

Following the KMT's loss in last year's presidential election, the Legislative Yuan has become the party's last source of power. Yesterday's congress was also an important step for the party as it prepared for the year-end legislative elections.

"The KMT will rise up again and take back power," Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said to cheering party members as he read from his speech notes.

But not every lawmaker was satisfied with the elections. KMT lawmaker Chen Hsueh-hseng (陳學聖) lashed out at the party prior to the counting of the votes for central standing committee members.

Chen accused the party of using a "suggestion" list for the election that identified 25 members the party's top leadership wanted to see chosen as among the group's 31 members. "The KMT continues to follow the practices of the past," Chen said angrily.

Lien sat nearby with a serious and stern look on his face. Chen was not elected to the central standing committee, though he placed 30th in the standing committee elections.

Party secretary Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) denied the existence of any suggestion list.

In the election of 210 Central Committee members yesterday morning, KMT poster boy and Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) finished first in the election unexpectedly.

Ma garnered more than 1,000 votes, setting the tongues wagging that the mayor may be a possible candidate to represent the party in the 2004 presidential election.

But Ma shrugged off the results yesterday. "The most important thing to the party is how to unite, and my position in this competition is really not important," he said.

Members close to ex-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) were low in the rankings. Because Lee is backing a new, rival party, the performance of party members who have close ties to the former president drew attention.

Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), the chairman of the China Development Industrial Bank who is known for his close ties to Lee, won 250 votes and finished 167th in the elections.

Some said Liu's placing indicated that the KMT was attempting to eliminate Lee's influence from the party, but Liu offered a different explanation for his showing.

"I'm glad to be elected, since I hardly promoted myself at all for the election," Liu said. "I don't know who those members of Lee's faction really are," he said, coyly.

While Lee's faction was pushed away from the party's center stage, Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) family members found new acceptance within the party.

The illegitimate son of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), John Chang (章孝嚴), finished fifth in the elections with 896 votes and plans to run for the year-end legislative elections. Chiang's daughter-in-law, Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡), an overseas delegate, finished 21st in the election.

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