Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday pledged to hold a fair and just KMT chairperson election, urging party members to subject the next race to the most stringent scrutiny.
Hung, who is on a seven-day visit to the US as part of her efforts to raise funds for the cash-strapped KMT, made the remarks during a forum with Taiwanese expats in San Francisco on Saturday.
“We must hold this [KMT chairperson] election in the most fair, just and open manner possible. Hopefully through this race, we could create an electoral culture of sportsmanship and fair play within the party,” Hung said.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
Hung said she hoped that each candidate running for the party’s leadership in the May 20 race could clearly demonstrate their ideals and cross-strait policy direction, allowing party members to make the best judgements possible.
As the incumbent leader of the KMT, Hung vowed to ensure fairness in the election and urged all party members to scrutinize the race under the strictest standard.
Hung’s comments came amid allegations that some of the candidates have sought to increase their chances of victory by recruiting “dummy party members.”
So far, four people have thrown their hats into the ring: Hung, KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co general manager Han Kuo-yo (韓國瑜).
The KMT, as of Monday last week, had 887,861 members, of whom only 226,783 are eligible to vote in the chairperson election, KMT data showed.
Expressing gratitude for Taiwanese expats’ consistent support of the KMT even during the party’s difficult times, Hung said most of the people she had encountered in the US had expressed their support for and expectations of the party.
“Each and every comrade understands the predicament the KMT is facing right now and are willing to send coal to the party during snowy weather. I am deeply touched by their adamant support of the KMT,” Hung said.
The party has been in dire financial straits since the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, established by the Executive Yuan in August last year, began efforts to recover party assets illegally acquired by the KMT during its party-state rule.
‘LONE WOLF’: The suspect was difficult to locate, as he did not use a cellphone, did not contact family and often lived in abandoned sites or parks, police said Taipei police on Thursday morning arrested a man accused of numerous burglaries and at least 14 incidents of sexual assault spanning more than 20 years, in what might be the nation’s most notorious crime spree in recent years. Sixty-year-old Tu Ming-lang (涂明朗) — who was yesterday placed in judicial detention, after a judge determined he was a flight risk without a fixed address — faces multiple charges of sexual assault and burglary, police said. A task force comprised of various law enforcement agencies arrested Tu as part of an investigation into an April 28 burglary in Daan District (大安), in which a
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
RSS