New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) is reported to have invited Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to head its list of legislator-at-large candidates.
Yok was quoted by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday as saying his party is reconsidering the possibility of tabling its own list of legislator-at-large candidates instead of cooperating with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and is willing to place Hung on top of the list.
“[The New Party] did not propose one [earlier] because we thought it was for the greater good... We had hoped for a concentration of pan-blue camp votes,” Yok was quoted as saying. “After the replacement [of Hung as the KMT’s presidential candidate], some KMT and Hung supporters are saying they will not vote at all due to their disappointment; tabling a list could garner the votes of those who care about the development of the KMT and the future of the Republic of China.”
Hung spokesman Lee Chang-chi (李昶志) said that her campaign office had not been contacted about the matter.
When asked whether there is a possibility of Hung accepting the offer, Lee said Hung’s stance “should be pretty clear to everybody from her previous remarks,” apparently referring to Hung’s comments about her “love for the party” and that she would not give up on it.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) was more direct: “Not possible.”
Since being listed on the New Party’s list of legislator-at-large candidates would mean leaving the KMT, “this would not be possible,” Wu said yesterday. “I myself checked with [Yok] and he denied [having invited Hung to be a candidate], so it is just a rumor.”
In related news, Hung’s campaign office announced yesterday that it would return the donations it received from the public since Sept. 23, a total of NT$11.83 million (US$362,239).
The decision to return the donations was made after various consultations, “as the revocation of a presidential nomination is unprecedented,” it said.
The office said it followed the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) and the donations would be “returned in part or all to donors within a month of them being accepted,” as the act stipulates.
The office apologized to those who donated anonymously and those who donated before Sept. 22, as their donations cannot be returned due to the regulations and because the money had been used for campaign events.
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