Print

Mail

wiki links

Two candidates announce KMT chairmanship bid

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Acting Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and six-term legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday announced they would join the party chairmanship by-election.

The KMT only accepted applications for the by-election yesterday and hopefuls will be required to register for the by-election on March 18.

Wu and Hung must collect signatures from at least 3 percent of party members by March 18 in order to qualify for registration.

From March 28 through April 6, the party will hold televised debates in which the candidates will present their platforms.

Wu said he originally had no intention of joining the race but changed his mind when he realized he had an obligation to make the sacrifice.

Wu's announcement came in the wake of recent disputes over who should assume the chairmanship of the party after Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) resignation over his indictment on corruption charges.

As the first KMT vice chairman, Wu took the reins of the party as acting chairman until the by-election.

While Wu has been the Ma camp's preferred candidate to take over the post, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) has for his part favored former KMT chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) return.

Wu's assistant showed up at KMT headquarters yesterday at noon to submit Wu's application on his behalf.

The by-election will be held on April 7 and the new chairman inaugurated on April 11.

Wu said that if elected new KMT chairman, it would be his last job.

He also pledged he would focus his efforts on facilitating negotiations between Ma and Wang in the KMT's presidential primary and the year-end legislative election.

After registering her candidacy for the chairmanship race, Hung told a press conference that she will not participate in the party's legislative primary as she wants to concentrate all her efforts on obtaining the chairmanship.

"I won't run in the legislative primary race -- not for a representative seat, not for a legislator-at-large seat. My registration for the chairman election is for real," Hung said.

Despite her overt public support for Wang over Ma for the presidential primary, Hung denied that her decision to participate in the chairmanship race had anything to do with Wang.

"Neither a pro-Ma or pro-Wang position will help the party win the 2008 presidential election. What the party needs is a pro-people position," she said.

"With only Acting Chairman Wu running in the chairmanship race, the election would be boring," she said.

"Only competition can lead to progress and energize the party," she added.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
This story has been viewed 1406 times.