The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) denied yesterday that Taoyuan County Commissioner Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Chiayi Mayor Huang Ming-hui (黃敏惠) would serve as vice chairpersons of the party, but acknowledged that the KMT is handing over more power to younger generations.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) was planning to nominate two members under 60 years of age as vice chairpersons to fill the vacancies left by Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Chang Jen-hsiang (章仁香) and Control Yuan president nominee John Kuan (關中), but the candidates would not be finalized until the party convention on Nov. 22, KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) said yesterday.
Lee made the remarks in response to a Chinese-language United Daily News report yesterday that Wu decided to nominate Chu and Huang and have them take over the vice chairperson positions in a bid to attract younger talent and promote localization in the party.
Chu, 47, has been one of the KMT’s stars along with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強). It had been speculated that Wu would list Chu as a vice chairperson and cultivate him as his successor.
Wu chose Huang, 49, as another nominee for KMT vice chairperson considering her age and fresh image in the party, the article said.
Lee said the KMT would revise its party regulations during the national congress, and one of the missions would be to amend its charter to allow younger party members to be involved in the decision-making process.
The amendment would require that half of the party’s vice chairpersons be younger than 60 years old, and half of the party’s central standing committee members and party delegates be under 50 years old, he said.
Meanwhile, Wu yesterday dismissed allegations that he had called Ma last week to confirm Ma’s unwillingness to double as party chairman.
“There’s no such thing,” Wu said yesterday after attending a memorial ceremony in Taipei.
Ma had vowed to separate party affairs from government affairs, and said he had no plans to double as KMT chairman.
The issue of whether or not Ma should take over the party chairmanship emerged shortly after Ma’s inauguration because of problems cooperating between the KMT caucus and Ma’s administration.
Lee said the party is not likely to touch upon the issue of having Ma take over the chairmanship when revising the regulations as Ma has reiterated he has no intention of taking the position.