The unity of opposition parties in the legislature matters more than whether the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will become the biggest political party, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma made the remarks in response to a report in the Chinese-language China Times that said at least three People First Party (PFP) legislators from central and southern Taiwan plan to join the KMT. If this were to happen, it would make the KMT the biggest political party in the legislature.
Chiayi victory
The KMT's victory in the Chiayi City legislative by-election last Saturday gave the party a total of 88 seats in the legislature, the same number held by the Democratic Progressive Party.
"I don't believe in the `biggest party' myth. I think the most important thing is for the pan-blue alliance to work together to exercise our power to monitor the government," Ma said yesterday after presiding over a municipal meeting as Taipei mayor.
PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (
"The PFP believes in being the spokesperson for the public and defending social justice. These speculations are meaningless," he said yesterday.
As long as the PFP holds more than 13 seats in the legislature, Chin said, the party will always be a key player.
Slim majority
The pan-blue camp has a slim majority of 112 of the 220 seats in the legislature, with the PFP holding 24 seats.
Many PFP city councilors and legislators have joined the KMT since the latter party announced new regulations which will require that candidates have held KMT membership for at least four months before they can run in elections for public posts. The regulations come into effect on May 25.
With the legislative election next year switching to a "single-district, one vote" system, in which one lawmaker will be elected from each constituency, it seems likely that more legislators may leave the PFP for the KMT.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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