Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday dismissed allegations that his predecessor in the party post, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), openly expressed discontent with his performance at a luncheon with KMT members.
“They are utterly incomprehensible, groundless and baseless. I am sure the Presidential Office will make a statement about this,” Chu said on the sidelines of an awards ceremony in New Taipei City, where he is mayor.
The online news Storm Media Group has reported that a group of 14 KMT Central Standing Committee and Central Committee members visited Ma at the Presidential Office Building for a luncheon on Monday last week to discuss the party’s campaigns for the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections.
“These members came prepared. Some of them urged Ma to step up to coordinate the KMT’s campaign strategies and campaign for the party’s candidates ... as well as ‘dealing with those who should be dealt with and removing ones who ought to be removed [as candidates],” the article said, in an apparent reference to Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), the KMT presidential candidate.
Ma, despite sharing concerns about the KMT’s slim chances in the elections, was indignant that he was asked to do “what a party chairman is supposed to do,” the report said.
“If the party chairman [Chu] is not giving out orders to do all this, is he really a chairman or what?” the article quoted Ma as saying.
There have been repeated calls for Hung to be replaced as the KMT’s presidential candidate since she won the party primary in June, largely the result of her poor showing in opinion polls, where she has trailed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by more than 20 percentage points.
The absence of key KMT member from some of Hung’s campaign events has also fueled rumors that she does not have the backing of the higher echelons of the party.
Presidential Office spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) yesterday discounted the Storm Media report, saying Ma had “absolutely not made such comments on Chu or the party’s campaigns.”
Nine of the Central Committee members who attended the dinner issued a joint statement later yesterday, denying election-related issues were discussed at the event.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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