Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) supported his continued leadership of the legislature, which he said he has agreed to do.
Wang made the remarks following local media reports yesterday saying that Ma dined with Wang on Friday last week and expressed his wish to enlist Wang’s assistance in his re-election bid and his support for Wang to remain at the helm of the legislature.
“[Ma] hopes I will stay in the legislature to serve the country,” Wang said.
OVERTURES
Ma, who doubles as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has asked KMT Secretary-General Liao Liao-yi (廖了以) to convey the idea to Wang several times since early February, Wang said.
Serving four terms as legislative speaker since 1999, coinciding with two terms as a KMT legislator-at-large since 2005, Wang could be included in the party’s legislator-at-large roster for the nation’s eighth legislative elections scheduled for Jan. 14 next year after the party revises its nomination rules to allow legislators-at-large to serve more than two terms.
CHIANG’S SUCCESSOR?
In related news, Legislative Deputy Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) denied a report by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that he might be appointed to succeed Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) as chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation.
If Tseng were to replace Chiang, senior KMT legislators Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) or Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) could be considered for the deputy speaker position, the paper said.
The parties concerned denied the report.
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