Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee member Hsieh Kun-hung (謝坤宏) yesterday filed an appeal after he was rejected as a candidate for the party’s chairmanship election next month.
Hsieh also threatened to take legal action if the party failed to explain how it reviewed his bid.
Hsieh’s election bid failed on Wednesday after the KMT’s election review commission said that only 6,610 of the 20,952 signatures he collected were valid. A threshold of 12,000 votes is needed to win approval.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Hsieh filed an appeal with the KMT for a second review and urged the party to give a proper explanation of the review procedure and results.
He also questioned the legitimacy of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) chairmanship re-election bid, while vowing to take legal action if the commission failed to clarify the issue today.
“The law sets a two-term limit on leaders of civil organizations, so there are doubts over President Ma’s eligibility to run in the [party] election. The KMT should suspend the poll and clarify the dispute in court,” he said.
The incumbent KMT chairman, Ma submitted 82,786 signatures to the commission, 59,925 of which were deemed valid.
KMT rules state that about 380,000 members are eligible to vote in the election, and prospective candidates must seek the endorsement of 3 percent, or about 12,000, of these voters.
KMT Organization and Development Commission deputy director Hsieh Cheng-fan (謝鎮藩) accepted Hsieh Kun-hung’s appeal and said the party would give him a reply in the form of a written statement by noon today.
Ma was elected KMT chairman in 2005, but resigned in 2007 when he was embroiled in a corruption case for allegedly misusing his special allowance during his tenure as Taipei mayor.
Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) took over the post until 2009. Ma was found not guilty of graft charges in 2008 and re-elected chairman in 2009.
Ma and the KMT have shrugged off questions about his re-election bid, arguing that terms are only counted if the official has completed more than half of their tenure.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard