A new political party that is currently being organized by former interior minister Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) -- reportedly with former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) endorsement -- would threaten the legislative election campaigns of all major parties, but the KMT would suffer the greatest impact, lawmakers predicted yesterday.
Huang's party, which will likely be founded in mid-August, has set its goal at winning over 30 seats in the year-end legislative elections and intends to cooperate with the DPP in the formation of a majority coalition in the legislature.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said though he does not think Huang's party has the ability to win as many seats as it claims, its presence is definitely destructive to the campaigns of other parties, which are already very competitive.
While the support base of Huang's party would overlap with that of the DPP in southern Taiwan, it would share the KMT's votes in northern Taiwan, according to Chen.
As the KMT is also facing competition for a similar support base from the People First Party (PFP), some KMT candidates may be defeated as a result, Chen said.
"Even if the new party's support rating is registered at only one percent, it will affect KMT candidates' probability to win," Chen said.
According to a recent poll of 717 Taipei residents which was released yesterday by PFP legislator Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠), only 1.9 percent of those surveyed said they supported Huang's party.
The support rating for the KMT, DPP, PFP and New Party were 13.8 percent, 21.1 percent, 23.6 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.
Chin said the founding of the new party, of which Lee is the spiritual leader, signifies that the showdown between Lee and his hand-picked successor Lien Chan (連戰), currently chairman of the KMT, will come sooner or later.
In the case of a total split between Lee and Lien, 28.2 percent of the people would support Lee, while 35.6 percent would support Lien, the poll claimed.
Shangren Lee (李先仁), another KMT legislator, said the KMT should try to prevent a Lee-Lien showdown from happening, because it would lead to another severe split of the KMT.
"This will also give Lee a very legitimate reason to help the DPP, which is very disadvantageous to the KMT's development," Lee said.
Under this scenario, the KMT should adopt a "support Lien, respect Lee" policy in the upcoming election campaign, Lee said.
Agreeing with him, Chen said the KMT should not give people the impression that it is the KMT that is letting Lee down.
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