The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Wednesday decided to include all potential presidential candidates, including Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), in its primary to select the party’s candidate for next year’s presidential election.
During the weekly KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, the party adopted a resolution to put in place special guidelines for the nomination of its candidate, so that all potential hopefuls could be included in the primary.
The committee also decided that the nomination schedule would be announced next month and that the primary would not begin until after June, the KMT said.
Photo: Ke Yu-hao, Taipei Times
Several committee members tendered a motion to structure the primary solely on opinion polls rather than a 70-30 weighting of public opinion polls and member votes — the method the party in February said it would adopt.
KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) did not announce a decision on the motion at the meeting.
KMT Organizational Development Committee director Lee Che-hua (李哲華) said that the motion would be dealt with after all of the party’s presidential aspirants have been consulted.
The resolution came one day after Han told reporters: “At this time, I cannot join the primary under the existing system.”
Han said that while he did not want to enter the KMT primary, he felt the need to take responsibility for the development and defense of Taiwan.
The statement was interpreted in some quarters to be an indication of Han’s interest in running for president, even though he was hesitant to take part in the primary in case he was seen as abandoning Kaohsiung too soon after his election in November last year.
Han’s reluctance to enter the primary prompted his supporters to urge the party to change its nomination guidelines.
At the meeting, Wu issued an instruction that all presidential hopefuls would be included in the primary, whether they actually sign up, KMT spokesman Ouyang Lung (歐陽龍) said.
This is expected to also benefit Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), who has said that he intends to seek the KMT’s nomination.
Despite having long been a KMT member, the tycoon has not renewed his membership for several years, leading his party rights to be restricted.
Under current party regulations, members are not qualified to take part in a primary unless they have held full membership for at least four months.
Other KMT hopefuls are former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).
Media polls show that Han has more public support than Gou.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS