Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday signed up to participate in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) primary for its presidential candidate, becoming the first person to do so after the nomination process began.
More than 100 of Hung’s supporters gathered outside the KMT’s headquarters as Hung went through the process of acquiring an application form.
“Give me Hung Hsiu-chiu, pillar of tomorrow,” chanted her supporters. The word “pillar” is an allusion to the last character of her name in Chinese.
Photo: CNA
Addressing the crowd, Hung said that the battle had begun.
“Changes start today,” she said. “I would have every bone in my body smashed in exchange for the nation walking on the right path.”
She also pledged to take part in the primary, which she described as a fair and open election process under a democratic mechanism.
“Without this process, there will only be closed-door negotiations,” which Hung said she would never accept.
Hung is the only KMT member so far to come forward, while other hopefuls, including Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) have remained tight-lipped about their intentions.
Asked if he would also be taking an application form, Wang yesterday said: “I don’t know now ... later,” while giving his support to Hung.
New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) — who is widely seen as the KMT’s best chance of winning the presidential election next year — has made it clear on several occasions that he has no plans to enter the race.
Some KMT supporters remain hopeful that Chu might change his mind if enough people come forward to persuade him to run for the presidency.
The KMT started the nomination process to select a presidential candidate yesterday. Interested party members need to submit an application form and collect supporting signatures from 5 percent of KMT members to register as a candidate.
The hopefuls have 27 days to complete the process, with candidate registrations taking place on May 17 and May 18.
The candidate is to be selected by a combination of opinion polls and a vote by party members. The average from two polls is to account for 70 percent of the final result and the party members’ vote, to be held on June 14, would make up the remaining 30 percent.
The KMT has more than 300,000 members, so potential candidates need to collect 15,000 signatures each to reach the next stage of the selection process.
The KMT is to nominate its presidential candidate at a party convention in mid-July.
The Democratic Progressive Party on Wednesday last week nominated Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as its presidential candidate.
The Central Election Commission last month selected Jan. 16 next year as the date for the presidential and legislative elections.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS