With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson election scheduled for Saturday next week, information from the party’s Organization and Development Department showed that the number of KMT members entitled to vote has dropped by 8 percent compared with the previous election less than two years ago.
Party sources said the marked decline in its membership is linked to the governing party’s poor performance and its decision to cut the pensions of some civil servants and members of the armed forces.
Compared with the previous KMT chairperson election, which had 380,000 eligible voters, the party now has just 350,000 members entitled to vote, information from the department showed.
The decline is even more striking when compared with the election in 2009, showing a 30 percent drop.
Sources close to the party said that many members had withdrawn or refused to pay their membership fees, therefore relinquishing their membership by default resulting in a considerable loss of grassroots party members.
Under the party’s statutes, a candidate must obtain at least half the total votes to become chairperson, which means New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), the sole contender in the upcoming election, must receive at least 87,500 votes if 50 percent of members take part.
If the election records a 60 percent turnout, he would have to surpass a steeper threshold of at least 105,000 votes.
The sources said Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is the acting KMT chairman, has vowed to help the party make a comeback from its crushing defeat in the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections by increasing the turnout, as the party is desperately in need of the support of its grassroots members.
Meanwhile, Chu, despite choosing not to set up a campaign office, is sparing no effort to boost the turnout, as civil servants affiliated with the KMT strive to use their influence to attain that goal, the sources said.
Based on statistics produced in the previous two KMT leadership elections — in which President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won 94.18 and 91.85 percent of votes respectively — Chu, who garnered more than 100,000 signatures from party members before announcing his bid, has a fair chance at securing more votes than Ma did six years ago, the sources said.
EIGHT KILLED: Three of the four juvenile victims were children of the man suspected of setting the fire at the tire repair shop after a family dispute Four of the eight people killed in a fire in Hsinchu City on Wednesday night were children and the other four were adults who died while trying to rescue the children from the second floor of the burning building, the city’s Fire Bureau said yesterday. Fire Bureau First Corps commander Chang Chih-chih (張智智) told a news conference that the fire at Zheng Yi Tire Repair Shop on Dongda Road might have been intentionally set by the owner’s son, Chen Yen-hsiang (陳彥翔), who earlier had an argument with other family members. Chen allegedly bought gasoline and lit a fire near four motorcycles inside
FIFA World Cup host Qatar has corrected an online application form that listed Taiwan as part of China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Following the ministry’s protest on Wednesday, “Taiwan” replaced “Taiwan, Province of China” on a dropdown menu on the Web site to apply for a Hayya Card, an identification card all World Cup spectators are required to obtain, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said. “We express our appreciation to the event organizers for their swift response in making the correction and safeguarding the rights of our nation’s fans,” she added. The card also serves as an entry visa for
ALARM GROWS: US officials are concerned that China’s claim that the Taiwan Strait is an internal waterway is a deliberate effort to muddy the legal status of Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and is increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts over the past few months. In the past, while China regularly protested US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters was not a regular talking point in meetings with US officials. The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the
NEW TRAVEL REGIME: The CECC advised people to stay put in between quarantine and self-disease prevention, but said that they could apply for a location change Inbound travelers who need to change locations for the four-day self-disease prevention period following their three-day quarantine must apply with their local government, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The “one person per household” principle would remain in place under the new “3+4” quarantine policy, which was implemented yesterday, the center said. More than 4,500 incoming travelers were expected yesterday, including more than 980 people who entered Taiwan in the early morning, said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), the CECC’s acting spokesman and medical response division deputy head. Lo said many people had asked the CECC whether
RSS