A group from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Young Turks launched an election observation team yesterday and urged party headquarters to deliver on the promise of integrity and reform proposed by incoming party chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in its upcoming central committee member election.
“People who are voted in as members of the central committee will be qualified to run as candidates for the Central Standing Committee, which is the party’s highest decision-making body. The central committee member election therefore is bound to attract much attention from the public,” Yang Chao (楊超), a representative of the KMT, told a press conference yesterday.
The central committee member election could be seen as the first step for the party to eradicate vote-buying, he said. Yang was one among the 1,171 party representatives elected by KMT members last Sunday.
On Aug. 16, these 1,171 party representatives will vote on 315 candidates for the 210-seat central committee. Among the 315 candidates for the central committee election, 210 were proposed by party headquarters, while the remaining 105 KMT members registered their own candidacies for the central committee election.
Saying that the party’s young turks were not satisfied with the candidates on the shortlist, Yang added that party headquarters should have established a committee of well-respected persons from outside the party to designate the nominees impartially rather than deciding on the shortlist in a non-transparent fashion.
“The criteria for selection of candidates on the shortlist were kept secret from the public,” he said, adding that “there was nothing good and new to speak of about the shortlist. There were more old faces than new ones and there were more elected officials than academics.”
Noting the pledge Ma made during his campaign for KMT chairmanship to lead the party on the road to reform and democracy, Yang and his fellow members called on the candidates for the central committee election to refrain from “ugly practices” such as treating party representatives to meals and giving them presents to buy their votes during the campaign.
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