Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday acknowledged that the defeat in Saturday’s Yunlin legislative by-election was a warning for the party, but said the KMT would continue party reform efforts by presenting candidates with integrity and a clean image.
“[Saturday’s result] sends us a warning and we will reflect upon ourselves deeply,” Wu said after voting in the KMT Central Committee election at the party’s Taipei branch.
KMT candidate Chang Ken-hui (張艮輝) lost Saturday’s by-election to his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) by a wide margin, handing a significant victory to the DPP, which prior to the vote held 27 legislative seats, one shy of a quarter of the 113-seat legislature.
Independent candidate Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), who left the KMT to run in the by-election, split the pan-blue votes by securing 22,747 votes in the by-election.
However, the combined number of votes for Chang Ken-hui and Chang Hui-yuan — 52,045 — was still short of Liu’s 74,272.
Wu said the party had not made a mistake in nominating Chang Ken-hui, a college professor with integrity and experience in local politics, and blamed the defeat on what he called the “special political environment” in Yunlin County.
“We insisted on nominating a candidate with a clean image and the KMT will keep up such reform efforts even though we have to pay a price in the process,” he said.
KMT heavyweights, including Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) blamed the party’s defeat on a pan-blue split and acknowledged that the by-election result had cast a shadow ahead of the local government elections in December.
“The party split, which resulted in dispersal of our strength and disappointed our supporters, is the main reason for the defeat ... The KMT needs to be more united facing the year-end elections,” Wu Den-yih said.
Hau said the result reflected voter disappointment with the poor performance of the government.
“People expressed their opinion with their votes and we should reflect on that,” he said.
The KMT’s defeat on Saturday was seen as a reflection of growing discontent with the government and a show of no confidence in President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The KMT lost the Miaoli legislative by-election earlier this year. The defeat of former Department of Health minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川), Ma’s preferred candidate, in the KMT primary for the Hualien County commissioner election also raised questions about public confidence in the Ma leadership.
The risk of a pan-blue split also threatens the KMT in Taitung, Hualien, Hsinchu and Nantou counties, where the party is having difficulties integrating local factions for the upcoming local government elections.
Ma, who will take over as KMT chairman on Oct. 17, did not comment on the election.
Wu Poh-hsiung brushed off concerns about more defeats in year-end elections and said he would make every effort to negotiate with local factions.
Meanwhile, the DPP legislative caucus, buoyed by Saturday’s win, said it now had enough seats in the legislature to propose a recall of Ma.
However, there was no such plan at the moment, the DPP said.
According to the Constitution, the legislature can propose a presidential recall or request a revision to the Constitution, or ask the president to make a state of the nation address if at least one quarter of the legislature supports the proposal.
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