The Chinese Nationalist Party’s plan to set a date and new guidelines for its presidential primary could be postponed after the party canceled KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) planned meetings with former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
The KMT had originally planned to pass the guidelines and set a date for the primary in a Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday and announce the results on Wednesday next week.
However, the party on Saturday canceled Wu’s planned meetings with Chu and Wang after Chu insisted that the meetings be public.
Photo: CNA
The party would discuss its response before and during Wednesday’s meeting and ensure that things are handled in a way easy for all to accept, KMT spokesman Ouyang Long (歐陽龍) said yesterday.
While the plan to set a date and establish guidelines for the primary could be postponed, they would still be completed by the end of this month as planned, without affecting the primary, he said.
KMT Central Standing Committee member William Hsu (徐弘庭) criticized the decision, saying that the party can no longer afford such delays.
If the party wants to nominate Han, it should do so and bring the case to the committee, he said.
If it is worried about a lack of support, then it should initiate a national convention, Hsu added.
The party must take action now or it would remain stuck on whether to enlist Han in the presidential race, he said, adding that discussing guidelines and a date for the primary before Wu has met anyone “makes no sense.”
Committee member Yao Chiang-ling (姚江臨) expressed a similar opinion, saying that the best way would be for Wu to talk to all potential candidates before passing a set of guidelines that must be followed.
Committee member Tseng Wen-pei (曾文培) urged Wu to be more direct in his approach.
When then-KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) was replaced by Chu in 2015, the party did not discuss the plan with Hung in advance, he said, adding that Wu does not need the consent of all primary candidates.
A majority of low-level party members agree that Han should be enlisted for the presidential race, he said, adding that events could unfold in three ways.
First, the party could set down guidelines and a date for the primary on Wednesday and require all primary candidates to adhere to them, although it would lead to serious divisions later on, he said.
Second, the party could conduct a poll to gauge public support for Chu, Wang and Han, and nominate one of them according to the results without holding further meetings with each candidate, Hsu said.
Third, it could postpone Wednesday’s discussion for the guidelines and the date until Wu has had a chance to meet with all three potential candidates, especially Han, he said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS