The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Central Standing Committee stressed party unity yesterday, a day after Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said his top aides will remain in their posts until the dispute over the presidential election has been settled.
The issue of resignations didn't come up at the meeting, at which committee members passed a resolution to form a group to guide party reforms.
The group, chaired by Lien, will consist of four sub-groups, including one in charge of the campaign for the year-end legislative election. The election sub-group will be headed by KMT vice chairmen Chiang Pin-kung (
Another sub-group, headed by Vice Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), will be responsible for party reform, and a sub-group in charge of policy and strategy will be headed by vice chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長). Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), also a vice chairman, will head the sub-group in charge of "finding the truth" about the election-eve assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).
"The purpose of the committee is to gather thoughts, ideas and suggestions from all party members and to turn them all into actions," said KMT deputy spokeswoman Kuo Su-chun (
Kuo added that Lien had asked the sub-group leaders to put forward substantial measures within one month's time.
Stressing the need for the party to stay united, Lien ordered KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
Amid calls by party members for them to resign to take responsibility for the KMT's poor election showing, the three had tendered their resignation last month.
While asking Lin, who started a leave-of-absence on Tuesday, to get back to work, Lien at the meeting yesterday promised committee members that he would take action to reform the party's staff and structure.
Committee member Chen Ding-yun (
"The election is not over yet. It is therefore pointless to now talk about reshuffling our leadership," Chen said.
The KMT-People First Party alliance has refused to concede defeat in the election. It has appealed to the Taiwan High Court to invalidate President Chen Shui-bian's (
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