Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), the only contender in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, yesterday vowed to lead the party in the fight to secure a majority in the legislature in January’s elections.
While doubts continue to cast a pall on the KMT presidential primary amid rumors that many of the party’s lawmakers are hesitant about endorsing her bid, about 40 legislators attended a party caucus meeting yesterday and cheered for the deputy speaker.
Hung told the caucus meeting, which was open to the media, that she was there not to present her policy, but to share her thoughts about her decision to run for president.
Photo: CNA
“I stand with [the party]. I know that many are afraid that I, as the mother hen, would not only fail to lead the chicks, but might even trample them,” Hung said in response to critics, who say that her winning the candidacy would make the party’s legislative election prospects, especially in the south, bleak. “But I have to tell you that I am not only a mother hen, I am also a hen that can fly.”
Hung said she would lead the party in facing the headwinds and help it secure a majority in the legislature. She added that she would not receive funding from the party, which she expects would be used for the party’s legislative candidates.
Small donations from supporters will be the source of her election campaign funding, Hung said, vowing to break the myth that “lavish spending on election campaigns” is the only way to win.
Hung underscored the importance of institutions and “what has been put down in black and white,” intimating that the party should adhere to the set primary rules on how a popularity poll, required for presidential primary contenders, should be done.
“I have reiterated that we should not agree to any other type [of public poll] other than the one that solely measures support for the contender as stipulated in the primary rules [rather than pitting her against the opposition candidate]. However, if the party decides to do it that way, [I] would not withdraw from the competition either,” Hung said.
KMT headquarters had announced earlier that two public polls would be conducted, with one pitting the KMT contender against the opposition candidate accounting for 85 percent, and another that solely measures the KMT candidate’s popularity accounting for the other 15 percent.
It announced yesterday that the ratio would now be 50/50, which is seen to be a more encouraging sign for Hung.
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