Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen (盧嘉辰) yesterday said he had initiated a signature drive calling on the party to immediately withdraw its appeal of a court ruling on Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) party membership.
Lu said he hoped the long drawn out litigation would come to an end soon, which “would be favorable to the party’s unity and reform efforts.”
Lu said he already has the support of about 20 KMT legislators — about one-third of the party’s 63 members in the 113-seat legislature.
The lawsuit involving Wang’s KMT membership has caused a serious rift in the party, Lu said.
“Whatever the party’s reason for filing the appeal, outsiders will see it as internal party conflict,” he said. “This will add to the KMT’s troubles and will not help its efforts at reform and unity.”
He expressed the hope that New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who assumed leadership of the KMT earlier yesterday, would heed the call of the majority of party members and retract the appeal as soon as possible.
In September 2013, the KMT’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee revoked Wang’s membership amid allegations that he had used his influence to sway a legal case.
The incident was dubbed by the media as the “September strife” between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the KMT chairman at the time, and Wang.
The committee’s decision could have cost Wang his seat as a KMT legislator-at-large and his position as legislative speaker, which he has held since 1999, but he fought back by suing the KMT for stripping him of his membership.
Both the Taipei District Court and the Taiwan High Court ruled in favor of Wang, and the KMT filed an appeal with the Supreme Court late last year.
Lin Rong-te (林榮德), a member of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee, yesterday said that many of the committee’s members support Lu’s view that the appeal should be withdrawn.
“This involves the future of the KMT, and everyone expects the matter to be brought to a close,” Lin said, adding that he would communicate with Chu over the next two days.
“Everyone knows that Wang is an asset in the legislature and we need him more than ever at this time,” Lin said.
Meanwhile, Wang said he would respect whatever decision Chu makes on the matter of the appeal.
“Let things take their natural course,” he said, adding that he had not been aware of Lu’s proposal.
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