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KMT parades take aim at high unemployment

The opposition KMT is calling on tens of thousands of local laborers to join large-scale parades on Saturday to protest against the country's increasing unemployment rate.

The nationwide parades, led by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), are scheduled to be held in 25 cities and counties. The parade scheduled in Taipei City starts at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and ends at the square in front of the Presidential Office.

It will be the second round of large-scale parades staged by the KMT since it lost power to the ruling DPP in the presidential election last year.

It is, however, the first time for Lien to personally take part in such parades.

The KMT staged its previous parade in Taipei City at the end of last year to demonstrate against the rising jobless rate. The parade was led by KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正).

According to the KMT, the DPP government must take the nation's unemployment problem seriously. It should also be paying more attention to the nation's struggling economy instead of the Dec. 1 elections.

According to figures released on Oct. 23 by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (主計處), Taiwan's unemployment rate hit an all-time record high of 5.26 percent in September.

The figure has risen for 13 months in a row since last September. The number of unemployed in September rose to 519,000 from 304,000 in the same month last year.
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