The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters yesterday scheduled the extempore party congress aimed at removing Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as the party’s presidential candidate. It is to take place on Saturday.
The congress, which has as its objectives “forging consensuses and securing victory through party solidarity,” is scheduled to begin at 2pm on Saturday at the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said after the conclusion of a party affairs meeting in Taipei yesterday morning.
When asked about whether such short notice would make it impossible for overseas KMT representatives to return for the congress, Lin said the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法) only requires one day advance notice for such a meeting, adding that she believes the selection of the date conforms with the law.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Regarding calls from some KMT lawmakers that the proposal to rescind Hung’s nomination be put to a secret ballot, Lin said the issue was not discussed at the meeting.
“The agenda and procedures for the congress will be made public after they are finalized. On Wednesday [tomorrow], we are scheduled to first brief members of the KMT Central Standing Committee on the matter,” Lin said.
The announcement came after the committee passed a motion on Wednesday last week, backed by nearly three-fourths of its 39 members, to hold a provisional congress to replace Hung as presidential candidate.
Hung, who was officially nominated by the KMT on July 19 as the only hopeful to have met all of the party’s presidential primary requirements, has been facing mounting pressure from other members to exit the race for the Jan. 16 election, as her support ratings have dropped by more than 20 percentage points in the past few months.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week weighed in on the matter, saying that Hung’s pro-unification cross-strait policies run counter to both the party’s stance and mainstream public opinion, and urged her to look at the bigger picture.
Chu added that he was willing to “assume the responsibility” of being the party’s candidate should Hung decide to quit the race.
However, Hung has refused to quit and vowed to continue campaigning until the last minute.
Rejecting Hung’s comments on Sunday that putting her nomination to a vote — whether by applause, a show of hands, or a ballot — at the congress would be detrimental to the KMT’s primary mechanism, KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that changing the polling method only for Hung could impair the congress’ procedures.
“Given that a KMT congress approved Hung’s nomination with a round of applause, adopting a different voting method now could be disruptive,” Lo said.
Lo said that applause is also an effective manner of voting, because it is easy to determine whether a proposal has passed by the proportion of attendees standing up and applauding.
When asked who would be the most suitable substitute for Hung, Lo said that she believes Chu would be the party’s best hope.
“Factoring in political geography, provincialism and gender, KMT Vice Chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠), who once served as Chiayi mayor, would also be an ideal choice,” Lo added.
In related news, at a question-and-answer session in the legislature, Control Yuan Secretary-General Fu Meng-jung (傅孟融) said that Hung would be required to transfer the remainder of contributions to her campaign to the government’s coffers should she be forced out of the race.
“According to the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), Hung will no longer be allowed to tap the political donations she has received once she exits the race. She will be required to submit a list of all expenditures to the Control Yuan within three months and give the remainder to the government,” Fu said.
Hung would be required to set up a new campaign account should she plan to run for a different post, Fu said.
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant