After Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Friday apologized to supporters while saying he would not be joining the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, some KMT lawmakers reacted angrily, blaming KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), with some calling for Chu’s resignation as chairman if the party ends up with a less-than-satisfactory candidate.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said Chu, Wang and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) are all possible candidates who could meet party members’ expectations. However, none of the three signed up for the party’s primary before the deadline passed yesterday.
“Chu and Ma should take the responsibility” if the party fails to field a strong candidate and loses next year’s presidential election, Lin added.
Chu must be held accountable if the KMT as a ruling party cannot field an influential candidate, as a chairman should shoulder the responsibility to engage in intra-party coordination and find a candidate who is likely to win, Lin said, adding that if Chu cannot solve the issue, “what is the point of him being the chairman?”
Lin said that Ma, as the nation’s leader and holding the highest government position in the party, should have gathered Chu, Wu and Wang to discuss the issue several months ago.
The KMT should field an appropriate candidate and a nation’s leader should not let its people down, Lin said.
“First [Ma should] apologize, then tell us how the KMT can present a candidate with good prospects,” Lin added.
Former KMT Taipei city councilor Yang Shih-Chiu (楊實秋) also called on Ma, who resigned as KMT chairman after the party’s crushing defeat in last year’s local elections, to “let go” of his grip on the party and to stop putting personal interests before those of the party or the party’s interests before national interests.
A lawmaker who asked to remain anonymous said the rules of the game have been constantly changing and the KMT is flustered.
“Chu and Ma should be held accountable for it,” the lawmaker said, adding that as the KMT is in a downturn, it is not possible to have Wang shoulder all the responsibility by himself, if, indeed, Ma ever allowed him to represent the party.
Though Wang, Chu and Wu have not joined the primary, the party appears to have not given up hope of fielding one of the three for next year’s presidential election.
It is said that former health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) is the key to whether the party resorts to “conscription,” as if Yaung passes the signature collection threshold and is registered as a contender, the possibility of conscription would be extremely remote.
The KMT’s primary rules state that if only one registered contender passes the signature threshold, they would have to be subjected to a poll, in which the potential candidate has to garner at least 30 percent support, without which the party could reject their nomination.
If Yaung and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who also signed up for the primary, both pass the signature threshold, unless coordination between the two is fruitful, Hung and Yaung would enter a poll race in which both party members’ votes and the numbers of a public poll are counted, with the winner securing the party’s nomination.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans