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Soong says PFP won't break ranks

Addressing media speculation yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he didn't believe that PFP legislators would fail to vote in accordance with the party's wishes when voting in the legislative speaker election on Feb 1.

"That is ridiculous," Soong said.

Chinese-language media reported yesterday that Soong told Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman, that he was worried five of the PFP's 34 legislators would not vote in accordance with the party's position in the speaker and deputy speaker elections. According to the report, Soong also told Wang that the PFP was making provisions against the possibility.

It has been widely speculated that the pan-blue ticket of Wang and PFP Legislator Chung Jung-chi (鐘榮吉) will lose several PFP votes, given that PFP Legislator Shen Chih-huei (沈智慧), who was also interested in running for deputy speaker and her supporters, are rumored to be unhappy with the party since she lost its vote for deputy speaker candidate.

Wang is running for re-election, while the PFP has nominated its own candidate,Chung, for the deputy legislative speaker position in the new legislature. Both the KMT and the PFP have touted the success of the Wang-Chung ticket as essential to the future of cooperation between the two parties in the legislature.

Speaking yesterday morning at a funeral service for Yang Yung-kuei (楊永奎), the father-in-law of PFP Legislator Cheng Chin-ling (鄭金玲), Soong said that the report was "chaotic" and stressed that the KMT and the PFP need to work together.

After visiting independent legislators yesterday to solicit support for Wang and Chung, Soong said he will also visit PFP legislators to consolidate support for the ticket.

When questioned yesterday, Wang also denied the rumors.

"There was no such occurrence. Before every election, there are all sorts of rumors," Wang said.

To consolidate support for the Wang-Chung ticket, the KMT and PFP are co-sponsoring a rally tonight, where it is anticipated that KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Soong will meet for the first time since the PFP chief returned home from the US on Saturday.

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