Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday rejected the idea that the party ignore its primary system and draft a candidate to run in next year’s presidential election, party spokesperson Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said.
KMT Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) and other KMT Central Standing Committee members suggested during yesterday’s weekly meeting that the party rely solely on polls to decide whom to nominate for the January election.
Lu suggested that Chu, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) be listed as possible candidates and that the party’s ticket be based on who places first and second in the polls.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The KMT’s primary rules stipulate that the party can only draft a candidate when the hopefuls who have met the signature collection threshold fail to be backed by more than 30 percent of respondents in a poll comparing them with the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential nominee, held as the second stage of the primary process.
Hung was one of only two party members who registered for the presidential primary.
However, she was the only one whose valid signature collection met the required threshold.
At present, Hung would be the only KMT member pitted against DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), her party’s presidential candidate.
Lu said he was worried that such a poll could be rigged by Tsai’s supporters because they would like to see Hung win the KMT nomination.
Another suggestion was made that if such a poll is to be conducted, pan-green camp supporters should be excluded, Lin said.
Lu’s proposal was not accepted by the committee after Chu urged the party to unite behind its primary system and not to take a pre-determined stance, Lin said.
According to a survey by the Chinese-language China Times newspaper, 34 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Hung in January’s election.
Hung said that although she did not think it would be easy to meet the requirement of winning more than 30 percent support in a head-to-head poll against Tsai, the suggestions by the Central Standing Committee members seeking alternative candidates would “spur” her efforts to win support from the public, especially those voters in southern Taiwan.
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