KMT lawmakers want own candidate

A KMT subgroup in the Legislative Yuan said yesterday the party should field its own presidential and vice presidential candidates -- instead of teaming up with the PFP.

The e-Generation Alliance was responding to media reports that, after extensive consultations between senior KMT and PFP heavyweights, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) would team up with his PFP counterpart James Soong (宋楚瑜) to run in the 2004 presidential election.

Legislator Shyh Jong-shyong (徐中雄), also head of the e-Generation Alliance, said he believes that the proposed Lien-Soong ticket would eventually turn into a Soong-Lien ticket, given Soong's higher popularity.

"As the largest opposition party in the legislature, the KMT should field its own ticket instead of teaming up with other parties," Shyh said.

Shyh said that the KMT should face up to reality and field its own ticket for the next presidential election.

In his view, Shyh said Lien could team up with Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to run for president in 2004. "If Lien has no intention of joining the race, the KMT can field a ticket of Wang Jin-pyng teaming up with Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)," he suggested.

Legislator Chen Hung-chang, who serves as deputy chief of the e-Generation Alliance, echoed Shyh's view, saying that the KMT should either field a Lien-Wang or Wang-Ma ticket and come up with innovative policy proposals to win the hearts and minds of voters.

"The KMT cooperated with the PFP in last December's legislative elections, but the KMT suffered a major setback because of it," Chen recalled. "We should not forget that lesson."

Chen said the proposal that the KMT and the PFP cooperate in the next presidential election is distasteful. "I'm afraid the domestic political scene would be even more chaotic if a joint KMT-PFP ticket won the presidency," he said.