In an effort to rein in maverick politicians that have vowed to "go it alone" in the year-end legislative elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is now shifting its plans to negotiate with these individuals into overdrive in an attempt to lessen the possible impact on the pan-blue alliance's election strategy.
"We will, in principle, try our best to communicate and mediate with them," said Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Three incumbent KMT legislators who lost Sunday's primary for the December legislative elections have vowed they will launch independent campaigns. Among them, KMT Legislator Tseng Tsai Mei-tsuo (
KMT Legislator Chang Tsai-mei (
Lin made no comments in response to Chang's accusation against him.
Meanwhile, Tseng Tsai yesterday reiterated her determination to run in the year-end legislative elections "to the very end."
"I think there is no way [for me to get party nomination]," said Tseng Tsai, after visiting with Lin yesterday to discuss the possibility of receiving the party's nomination.
According to Tseng Tsai, Lin said that due to primary regulations, there's no room left for her to be considered by the party for nomination.
Saying that she has been a KMT member for the past 40 years, Tseng Tsai said that she would always remain a KMT member; and that she will only leave the party if it chooses not to keep her.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
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