Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday became the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman after securing more than 140,000 votes of the 272,682 cast in the election.
The KMT announced that Wu had garnered 144,408 votes, representing 52.24 percent of those cast, to win the six-way election.
Wu is to assume the position on Aug. 20 for a term of four years.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Outgoing KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), the runner-up, obtained 53,063 votes, followed by former KMT vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) with 44,301 votes.
Former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) had 12,332 votes, while former Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp (台北農產公司) general manager Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and former KMT legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) obtained 16,141 votes and 2,437 votes respectively.
KMT headquarters said that voter turnout was 58.03 percent — a 1.71 percent increase compared with last year’s KMT chairperson election, which had a turnout of 56.34 percent, the lowest in the party’s history.
Yesterday’s election saw the lowest-ever voter turnout among 12,724 KMT members living overseas, with only 5,127 voting.
The party has a total of 476,147 members.
Hung led Wu in the overseas vote by a razor-thin margin by winning 2,323 votes, compared with Wu’s 2,069 votes, while Hau trailed in third with 409 votes.
Hau last night issued a statement conceding defeat and saying that he hopes the KMT would promote harmony among its members and that the party has a prosperous future.
Hung also conceded defeat last night, calling on party members to unit behind the new party chairman.
On Facebook, Chan issued a statement saying that “the members have voted” and that he would like to wish the party “all the best.”
Chan hinted that he is preparing his next career move in the KMT, saying that he would “see his supporters soon.”
Han thanked his supporters, and said that he had not fought hard enough in the campaign.
According to the KMT’s charter, if no single candidate obtains 50 percent of the votes, a run-off election would have to be held between the top two candidates. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) congratulated Wu on behalf of the DPP, saying that the party hopes Wu would adopt a nonpartisan stance in his endeavors to help the nation bring about reform.
After his win, Wu declared in a speech that the KMT would adhere to the “1992 consensus” if it wins the 2020 national elections.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during the cross-strait talks in 1992 that Beijing and the Chinese Nationalist Party acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
In 2006, former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he made up the term “1992 consensus” in 2000, before the KMT handed power to the Democratic Progressive Party.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS