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.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS