The emergence of yet another party on Taiwan's political scene will be completed today, after the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) has held its first congress and founding ceremony.
The latest brainchild of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the TSU plans to help the ruling DPP in the year-end legislative election by snatching votes away from the opposition alliance. The two parties hope to form a majority alliance after the election. The DPP is currently a minority party facing an overwhelming opposition majority at the Legislative Yuan.
But the party's tactic appears to be running into problems as there was an approximately equal number of DPP and KMT members who reportedly plan to join the party today.
A list of 39 legislative candidates, expected to compete in the elections for the party, was released to the public yesterday.
Included on the list were 15 KMT members, 14 DPP members, one New Party member, one Taiwan Independence Party member and eight independent candidates.
Former interior minister Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), one of Lee's proteges and a key force behind the TSU, is expected to be elected as the party's first chairman at today's launch ceremony.
Lee himself is also scheduled to speak at the ceremony this afternoon. The former president is expected to give the party's legislative candidates a crash course on election campaigning on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, according to the Chinese-language media.
The party's creation has upset some members of the DPP who have previously sat on the other side of the political fence from Huang and other KMT members who are joining the party.
Expressing these fears, four members of the DPP's Justice Alliance held a press conference yesterday urging the TSU to draw a clear line between itself and the DPP. Some members of the DPP believe that the TSU may end up doing more harm than good to the ruling party.
The four candidates urged the TSU not to "make life difficult for the DPP." They also asked DPP members to give up membership before running as TSU candidates.
In a gesture of goodwill toward the DPP, the TSU will not nominate candidates for any constituency where only one seat is up for grabs, Huang said. He also said that the TSU would consider the impact towards the DPP's voter base before nominating candidates in other constituencies.
"Far from snatching votes from the DPP, the TSU's nominations will have a complementary effect," Huang said.
Members of the KMT who have joined the party will face, perhaps, a more serious fate. The KMT's disciplinary committee is set to meet on Tuesday and decide on how to discipline party members who have joined the TSU. The KMT is expected to expel any member who has jumped the fence.
KMT member and Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), is also expected to attend today's ceremony and give his blessings to the party.
Wang said he is only making a courtesy call in his capacity as the legislature's speaker, rather than as vice chairman of the KMT. Wang said that he had spoken with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
President Chen Shui-bian (
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