Presidential Office expects opposition alliance to crumble

The 115 votes secured by the KMT's Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤) in Friday's election for legislative vice speaker represents the maximum that the opposition alliance can muster but a figure that will not be easily maintained, a source in the Presidential Office said yesterday.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had been disappointed but not angered by the ruling party's defeat.

Close aides to the president believe that the opposition alliance will have trouble ensuring so many votes in the legislature in the future.

"Since all the laws, proposals and even government budgets that have to be passed in the Legislative Yuan involve the complex interests of different parties' lawmakers," another presidential aide said, "splits in the opposition alliance can be expected."

The aide, who also requested anonymity, said that after becoming the biggest party in the legislature following elections two months ago, the president had postponed implementing a pledge he made during the campaign for the legislative elections to forge a "cross-party alliance for national stabilization (國安聯盟)" in the Legislative Yuan.

"President Chen wanted to show the government's goodwill to the opposition parties in order to seek cooperation [by leaving the initiative for such cooperation with the opposition parties]," the aide said.

"But the result of the vice-speaker election proves that you cannot trust your adversary."

The source in the Presidential Office told the Taipei Times that the president cancelled all scheduled activities on Friday afternoon to follow the election, in which he had been confident of victory with the cooperation of the KMT's Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the newly re-elected speaker.

"President Chen was indeed stunned by the ruling party's failure," the source said, "but the president doesn't feel cheated by Wang."

DPP lawmaker Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌), the party's defeated candidate for vice speaker, told the Taipei Times yesterday that the president remains undecided about whether to organize the "cross-party alliance for national stabilization."

"The president will seriously consider the timing of implementing that project," Hong said. "But for the time being he doesn't appear to want to forge the alliance until the government needs to pass important measures."

DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) said that many DPP lawmakers had complained that they had been betrayed by Wang but that the ruling party would still negotiate with opposition parties to seek cooperation or more harmonious competition.

DPP lawmaker Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who was a member of Hong's campaign team, said that the position of vice speaker was not crucial for the DPP to win but that the election result showed that the "majority opposition alliance" would remain the key threat to the government over the three years of the just-convened fifth Legislative Yuan.