The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) failed to elect its first-ever caucus general convener after the two candidates, Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Apollo Chen (陳學聖), tied in yesterday’s vote.
The two candidates received 14 votes each from 29 KMT lawmakers who showed up for the election, with one invalid vote and six lawmakers abstaining.
KMT Central Policy Committee chief executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who presided over the election, said KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has high expectations for the improvement of autonomy within the party caucus and of its “combative power,” adding that while in the past the work of the KMT caucus whip had been shared by the committee chief director — a position that had been doubled by a lawmaker until Tsai — and the caucus secretary-general, with an elected general convener, the autonomy of the caucus would be improved.
Hung last month said that the person elected by the caucus “would be the deputy executive director of the party’s Central Policy Committee,” a position that would be under the leadership of the party-assigned policy committee’s chief executive director.
According to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier this week, Sufin said that he would not take the position of committee deputy executive director if elected, but would coordinate with Tsai.
“We are still a team; it would not signify an opposing stance against the party headquarters,” he said.
According to local media, party caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) had Hung’s support before he said that he would not run for general convener on Wednesday, the last day of the registration for candidacy.
The United Daily News cited an unnamed KMT lawmaker as saying that with Lin opting out, Tsai’s influence would be kept outside of the caucus.
The Ministry of Finance this afternoon announced the winning numbers for the March-April uniform invoice lottery. The winning number for the NT$10 million (US$318,060) special prize is 19531471, and the winning number for the NT$2 million grand prize is 85941329. Three numbers were drawn for the NT$200,000 first prize: 07225810, 20231230 and 83518781. Those with receipts matching the last seven digits of any of the first-prize numbers will win the NT$40,000 second prize, while those matching the last six digits will win the NT$10,000 third prize. Those whose receipts match the last five digits of the first-prize numbers can claim the NT$4,000 fourth prize,
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