Wang tells KMT: Ma candidacy a risk

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, center, performs an Aboriginal dance with lawmakers at the legislature yesterday to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Pig. PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to consider the possibility that a lawsuit seeking to annul the 2008 presidential election result might be brought should former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) win.

Ma and Wang are competing for the party's presidential nomination, even though Wang has yet to announce his intention to run in the primary.

The Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that Wang warned the party against nominating Ma, who was indicted earlier this month on corruption charges relating to the use of his special allowance during his eight-year term as Taipei mayor.

The paper said that Wang made the remarks during a private chat with pan-blue lawmakers and supporters in Taichung on Sunday.

In accordance with related regulations, people with corruption convictions are deemed unfit to be candidates for president and vice president.

The KMT has to seriously consider the possibility that the party may face legal action seeking to annul the election result if Ma wins, the paper quoted Wang as saying.

"I didn't make any such comments but ... it's really a problem worthy of discussion."

Wang Jin-pyng, legislative speaker

The paper also quoted an anonymous source as saying that Wang had estimated that Ma would be given a ten-year sentence if found guilty.

"I didn't make any such comments, but some local pan-blue supporters did. It's really a problem worthy of discussion," Wang said when approached by reporters yesterday.

Wang said that the possibility of a lawsuit did worry grassroots pan-blue supporters and the party needed to understand the related regulations during the nomination process.

Lawmakers who attended the meeting with Wang yesterday refused to comment.

Meanwhile, when asked to respond to the report, Ma said that he would not speculate about the verdict of the case as it has already entered judicial proceedings.