Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned as one of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) vice chairmen yesterday to shoulder his share of responsibility for the party’s massive defeat in Saturday’s nine-in-one elections.
The announcement came a day after Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) also quit as a KMT vice chairman to assume partial blame for the electoral loss, which saw the party winning in only one of the nation’s five special municipalities — New Taipei City — and just five of the 16 cities and counties contested.
Amid calls for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to step down as KMT chairman, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) — another vice chairman — yesterday said the party must reflect on how it can change and what role it will play before it considers any candidates for the chairmanship, or else it would only confirm the public’s view that it is unable to change.
Photo: CNA
The results of Saturday’s polls reflected the public’s disappointment in the KMT, Chu said, adding that the party must reflect on how to change itself and adapt to a new generation.
Chu asked the public to not give up on the KMT and give it another chance to prove itself in their eyes, adding that the nation needs a healthy two-party system.
When asked whether he would take up the mantle of party chairman to enact internal reforms, Chu said that the KMT must first reconsider its role, what it wants to achieve and how the chairman post fits into its grand scheme.
“To immediately consider who should run for party chairman and who should not will only lead people to retain their negative impression of the party,” Chu said, adding that the KMT must let the public know it is capable of change and of meeting the expectations of the next generation.
When pressed for an answer, Chu said he would not run from responsibility, but stressed that the party still has a long way to go and much to learn from civic organizations around the world.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) said that only if someone new takes over as party chairman would the KMT have a chance to redeem itself.
“The party chairman can be anyone: Chu, [Legislative Speaker] Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) or Wu, but Ma must go,” Lo said.
Additional reporting by CNA
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS