Outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Hsiao Shui-li (蕭淑麗) on Monday announced that she would be withdrawing from the party to run as an independent in the Chiayi City mayoral election in November, a move that could jeopardize the KMT’s chance of maintaining its control over the only pan-blue-governed administrative region south of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).
The river is seen as the symbolic dividing line between those who identify themselves with the KMT and prefer closer ties with China, and those who support the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and other pan-green parties.
Hsiao has been a KMT member for more than three decades, during which she served as a representative of the now-defunct National Assembly before assuming leadership of the Chiayi City Farmers’ Association.
She belongs to the so-called “Hsiao family clan” (蕭家班), one of the most powerful and well-connected factions in the city.
At the press conference where she made the announcement, Hsiao cut a magnified copy of her KMT membership card in half before smashing two cardboard signs bearing the KMT and the DPP’s emblems with a baseball bat as she urged the electorate to use their votes to bring down what she called the nation’s “vicious” two-party system.
The press conference was attended by nearly 1,000 people backing Hsiao, Chiayi City Council Speaker Tsai Kuei-ssu (蔡貴絲) and Deputy Speaker Chiu Fang-chin (邱芳欽), both also of the KMT.
Hsiao said she was refusing to compete in the ruling party’s primary because of a previous “unpleasant experience.”
“I participated in the KMT’s primary for a legislator by-election in Chiayi in 2006. I beat fellow contender Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄) in an inter-party vote. I led Chiang by a small margin in two public polls and trailed him in only one survey, but the KMT still chose him as its candidate,” she said.
Hsiao said Chiayi voters had lost faith in the KMT because of its longstanding disregard for the city’s need for economic development, while the DPP had fueled political infighting by manipulating the public’s sentiments.
“We must not let the city become a political tool … which is why I have decided to rise above politics and be a mayor for all people,” she said.
When reached for comment, the chairman of the KMT’s Chiayi City branch, Tsai Ming-hsien (蔡明顯), said he was “shocked” by Hsiao’s decision and expressed regret over the “split in the party,” but added that he respected her move and wished her the best.
So far, three KMT members have announced their candidacy for the party’s primary for the Chiayi mayorship, including Chiayi City councilors Chang Hsiu-hua (張秀華) and Kuo Ming-pin (郭明賓), as well as former National Youth Commission minister Chen Yi-chen (陳以真), who is reportedly the preferred candidate among the KMT’s higher echelons.
With the ruling party set to conduct a public poll to choose its candidate for the Chiayi race, critics say it might lose the city to the DPP should it fail to cooperate with Hsiao in the election.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do