New party group choosing a name

The new political party currently being organized by former minister of the interior Huang Chu-wen (黃主文), which intends to cooperate with the ruling DPP after the year-end legislative elections, will be called either the "Taiwan United Alliance" (台灣團結聯盟) or else the "Taiwan Liberty Party" (台灣自由黨)Huang said yesterday.

"Most of us prefer the Taiwan United Alliance and we have even created the new party's logo," said Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), a scholar who will stand in Kaohsiung for the new party in the legislative elections.

"The ultimate choice will be made by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) within a week," Lo added, "and Huang will formally register the new party's name with the Ministry of the Interior before the end of July."

The main objective of the new party is to assist the ruling DPP in forming a majority alliance in the Legislative Yuan to bring an end to the current political deadlock, an ideal which Huang has said is fully supported by Lee.

Lo revealed that the new party will win between 38 and 42 legislative seats in the year-end polls and that a complete candidate list will be published by the middle of next month.

"Those candidates will include over 20 KMT members that are preparing to jointly declare their resignation from the KMT," Lo said.

Lo yesterday attended the campaign press conference of Buddhist Master Yang Wu-kung (楊悟空), who announced that he would stand for the party in Taipei County.

Yang's participation in the soon to be formed political group is seen by some observers as a sign that Lee's influence is also capable of reaching into the pocket of the People's First Party (PFP).

During last year's presidential election Yang stood by the side of James Soong (宋楚瑜).

Current KMT lawmaker Hsu Teng-kung (許登宮) attended the conference as well and announced his own candidature for the new party in Taipei County.

Rejecting rumors that each new party candidate would receive NT$50 million in campaign funds, Hsu said that those reports were "ridiculous."

"Those rumors are KMT trickery," Hsu said. "They are just doing their best to discredit our reputation."

Lo said that all new party candidates would be free from any links with organized crime or "plutocrats," saying that it was the KMT which continued to be tainted by "black-gold."

"The low rates of support for the KMT in recent public opinion polls reflect the fact that people still don't believe the party's sincerity on reforming itself," Lo said. "But the party obviously doesn't recognize that and just spends its time attacking rivals."