The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) showed its determination to reform on Wednesday by expelling 10 Greater Tainan councilors from the party for supporting non-party nominees for council speakership in the Dec. 25 elections.
The disciplinary action against the councilors, which leaves the KMT with only three members now in the local council, highlighted the party’s efforts to weaken the strength of local factions, but would have a limited effect if it failed to cultivate more talent and come up with an alternative mechanism for local elections, analysts said.
“The KMT is trying to break away from local factions and the negative image of corruption they represented, but what matters is the party’s ability to restructure its local support bases and attract new blood,” said Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒), a political analyst at National Tunghua University.
The KMT did not nominate candidates for the city council head elections in Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan or Greater Kaohsiung because of power struggles in local factions. In Tainan, for example, the KMT asked party members to vote for themselves as a strategy to prevent the election of independent candidate Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), who was removed from the KMT in February after his indictment on charges of fraud and bribing professional baseball players to manipulate games.
However, the party’s attempt to distance itself from Wu failed, as a total of 10 KMT councilors in Greater Tainan refused to abide by the “vote for self” strategy and cast their votes for Wu or the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Mei-hui (賴美惠).
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) described the councilors’ failure to obey party regulations as a “betrayal” and said disciplinary action must be taken to protect the party’s image.
King also pledged the KMT’s determination to continue to reform, saying he would prioritize efforts to train new talent to consolidate its local bases if the expelled members refused to cooperate with the party in the future.
Commenting on the KMT’s plan to weaken the strength of old factions in cities, Shih said a rigid power hierarchy in which the party’s old guard prevents young people from injecting new energy into the party remained a thorny issue despite President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as the KMT chairman, and Kings’ efforts to revitalize the party.
In the city council speaker election for Greater Taichung, for example, the KMT dissuaded incumbent Taichung City Council Speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年) from seeking re-election amid concerns about his previous bribery case.
Taichung County Council Speaker Chang Ching-tang (張清堂), who won the council speaker election with the endorsement of the KMT, however, is not a politician with a clean image, as he left the KMT after a court found him guilty of corruption charges in September.
Political commentator Wang Yeh-lih (王業立), of National Taiwan University, said the KMT still lacks a mechanism to cultivate new members in local cities as replacements for the old guard, which could affect the party’s performance in the legislative election and even the presidential election next year.
He approved Ma and Kings’ attempt to eliminate the old guard in local factions and said the KMT should be ready for opposition from some party members and election setbacks in the effort to revitalize the party.
Although the KMT won the council speaker elections in Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市, the proposed English name of the upgraded Taipei County), the party lost the deputy speaker seat in Taipei to the DPP because of a power struggle in the city council.
The KMT’s Taipei branch director Pan Chia-sen (潘家森) acknowledged the branch’s failure to prevent runaway votes and resigned from the position to take full responsibility.
New Party Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) suggested the KMT address the issue of power struggles between the old guard and newcomers in local councils more aggressively, rather than counting on pan-blue allies to win elections.
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