The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should reveal in advance the agenda of the pending extempore party congress aimed at removing Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as the party’s presidential candidate and allow the proposal to be decided anonymously via secret ballot rather than by a show of hands, Hung camp officials said.
KMT headquarters is scheduled to hold a meeting today to discuss and finalize the date, location and agenda of the congress, which is expected to be held before the end of this month.
While what the party intends to achieve at the congress is no secret, KMT headquarters’ insistence on remaining silent on the issues to be discussed at the meeting is said to have irritated Hung’s campaign team and KMT representatives supporting her.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
Mao Chia-ching (毛嘉慶), deputy convener of the campaign office’s public relations department, said many grassroots party representatives have expressed their concerns that many of the issues that have been put to a vote at party congresses were conducted by a show of hands.
“They said given that local party representatives usually attend the congress and sit together with party chapter chiefs from their districts, almost none of them would dare to not raise their hands when voting,” Mao said.
KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said all matters regarding the congress are to be deliberated at today’s party affairs meeting, which is to be presided over by KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川).
As for the voting method, Yang said it would be determined in accordance with the KMT’s congress regulations, which stipulate the chairman of the meeting is entitled to decide whether to conduct voting by a show of hands or by ballot.
However, if an attending representative expresses dissent regarding the chairman’s decision and is supported by more than 100 participants, the chairman is required to let representatives present vote on the voting method, Yang added.
In the past, a majority of proposals submitted at KMT congresses were passed with applause, while a show of hands was taken at a 2013 congress to pass a draft amendment to the party’s charter making the nation’s president, when the party is in power, the rightful chairman of the KMT.
Ballots have never been used in a KMT congress.
A staff member from Hung’s camp, who requested anonymity, said the KMT has traditionally been a patriarchy, whose members do exactly as they are instructed, such as applauding or passing a motion.
“If KMT headquarters want to assuage dissent, they should at least tell the public how they plan to handle the voting process or explain what kinds of issues are to be deliberated to achieve [KMT Chairman Eric] Chu’s (朱立倫) stated goal of forging consensuses and securing victory with party solidarity,” the staff member said.
It should also be made clear in advance whether they intend to remove Hung before authorizing Chu to find a suitable substitute — which might suggest underhand dealings — or nominate Chu before ousting Hung, which would make it difficult to calm angry supporters of Hung, the staff member said.
The staff member added that since a two-month notice is required for the holding of an extempore party congress, any party representative could apply for a preliminary injunction to nullify the congress.
Later in the day, in response to questions from reporters, Hung said her camp has never proposed putting her nomination to a secret vote, because letting KMT representatives vote on the matter itself is detrimental to the party’s primary mechanism.
“I think it is better to have a debate on my policies that [the KMT leadership] deems to be running against mainstream public opinion,” Hung said, adding that it is up to KMT headquarters’ “wisdom” to decide how to address the matter.
She said a private event in Taipei yesterday evening — to be attended by 120 of her supporters — was designed to give her backers a venue to vent their emotions and voice their opinions, because many of them have been frustrated by recent events.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary