Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson candidate Lee Hsin (李新) said that the party is favoring candidate Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠), adding that Huang is benefiting from her position as acting chairperson by being privy to information the other candidates are not.
Lee also said that Huang was benefiting from party funding, while others were not.
Pointing to a letter sent to him by the KMT’s Bering branch, Lee said the branch had received no information on what the candidates proposed to do if elected chairperson, adding that the branch complained it only received a package including return envelopes, the actual ballot and what party members needed to know about absentee voting.
The only information on policies or what the candidates were like was from a message sent by Huang on Monday last week that she wanted to be a leader who would listen to the people and one who understood the art of negotiation, Lee said, adding that Huang being the only one to send letters to members abroad was unfair.
Lee said he received complaints from the party’s Huang Fu-hsing military veterans’ branch that its request for funding was turned down by the party, which cited financial difficulties.
The election for party chairperson is a nationwide election, and as the candidates have submitted NT$9.6 million (US$292,770) for election fees, there is no reason why the party would be unable to fund its members’ election fees.
Lee said that the party was not providing funding for fear that it could not “control” the Huang Fu-hsing branch due to the branch’s strong support for a certain candidate in the race.
Lee said that Huang, despite taking a leave of absence to campaign for party chairperson, nonetheless participated in-person on matters of importance, adding that this potentially affected the neutrality of the election.
Lee called on Huang to resign as acting chairperson or back out of the party chairperson elections entirely.
In response to Lee’s allegations, party spokesperson Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) said that all funding was transparent and could be looked up by any members, adding that the party was not favoring one candidate over any other.
Lee Ming-hsien said the party was baffled as to how Huang was able to obtain the list of members abroad, adding that it had provided the exact same list of party members to all four candidates.
The claims of an unfair election are unjustified and all election processes are fair, just and transparent, Lee Ming-hsien said.
Lee Ming-hsien said the party is willing convene a meeting between all four candidates to clarify matters, adding that the party had already convened a similar meeting recently covering all such issues.
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