KMT, PFP back Chiang challenge

The KMT and the People First Party (PFP) yesterday announced their decision to cooperate in Friday's elections for legislative speaker and vice-speaker, and nominated incumbent speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and incoming KMT legislator Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤) respectively.

The decision, however, upset the ruling DPP, which has agreed to support incumbent speaker, the KMT's Wang, since he announced his intention last month to stand for re-election.

Cooperation between the KMT and PFP over the elections has remained an uncertain prospect since then.

Their surprise nomination of Chiang yesterday, came only five days before Friday's election.

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) met to decide the pan-blue camp's candidates yesterday afternoon and held a joint press conference to announce their decision in the evening.

The move also comes only a day after the DPP's nomination of Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌), a senior DPP lawmaker, as its candidate for legislative vice speaker.

"To protect our constitutional system and to foster the better functioning of the legislature, the KMT and PFP have decided to cooperate in the legislative speaker and vice-speaker elections," Lien Chan said at the press conference.

Soong said that the two parties' joint nominations were designed to promote talent, especially when Taiwan's economy was sluggish.

"Chiang is an expert in economics, and we believe that he is the perfect candidate for the election," Lien said.

Chiang said that he received word of his nomination at about 3pm yesterday and that he was willing to compete with Hong.

Chiang, currently an executive officer of the KMT's National Policy Foundation, is a former head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, and former minister of economic affairs.

Rumors have circulated that premier-designate Yu Shyi-kun had invited Chiang to serve as vice premier because of his expertise in economics, but that Lien had opposed his appointment.

Hong voiced the DPP's disappointment yesterday with the opposition parties' decision.

"The DPP is the majority party in the Legislative Yuan. We decided to cooperate with the KMT's Wang Jin-pyng in order to foster stability in the Legislative Yuan, but the opposition parties' cooperation just creates more conflict," said Hong Chi-chang, the DPP's nominee for the vice-speaker election.

Hong added, however, that the KMT's decision to cooperate with the PFP was unwise, especially since Wang had expressed his desire not to run a joint campaign with a vice-speaker candidate.

Wang has said several times that he wants to be "selfish" and campaign only for himself.

Wang declined to comment last night.

The DPP, meanwhile, said that it might now nominate a rival candidate for legislative speaker.

The KMT holds 68 seats in the Legislative Yuan, the PFP has 46, the DPP 87, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) has 14 and independents two.

If the DPP and TSU, considered part of the pan-green camp, together with the two independent legislators support the same candidate, they will stand to win a maximum of 103 votes, 11 less than the 114 the KMT and PFP could muster if all their legislators vote for the same candidate.