Plans by the KMT and People First Party (PFP) to cooperate in the year-end local government elections appear to have broken down after leaders of the two parties failed to find common ground in talks yesterday.
After a meeting with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Soong said current plans for KMT-PFP cooperation were "unsuccessful," blaming the failure on "difficulties" on the KMT side.
"The KMT, because of internal difficulties, hasn't been able to offer open and full support for the PFP's outstanding candidates in any of the total of 21 counties and cities. I feel not only regret but a great deal of disappointment at this development," Soong said.
Soong said that, for localities where the PFP's candidates enjoy a likelihood of winning, his party will definitely "fight it out."
These localities include Miaoli, Taitung and Nantou counties, according to Soong.
He said that resources would be devoted to legislative elections in those areas where the PFP enjoys little chance of success in local government elections.
Contrasting with Soong's pessimism, Lien said that there still remained "possibilities" for cooperation.
"Cooperation always involves some compromise ... with this in mind, we should stick to our cooperation plans and continue to push for the goal," Lien said.
Lien said cooperation was likely in certain localities, while it still remained possible to cooperate in others by "working harder."
He did not elaborate as to which localities remained a problem.
Lien suggested that both parties could forge compromises "depending on which candidates win a higher degree of approval" in the months leading up to the election.
The KMT and PFP had negotiated for five months to cooperate in the county commissioner and city mayor elections, and they once reached an agreement to cooperate in six localities, where they were supposed to jointly nominate candidates. Each party was to enjoy the nomination right in three of the six localities.
Some high-ranking PFP officials have over past weeks openly blamed the KMT for being "insincere" about cooperating with the PFP, after none of the PFP candidates were able to win the KMT's support.
Soong proposed the meeting with Lien last week, saying the discussion would not be limited to the cooperation plans in the six localities.
Just as the PFP's cooperation plans with the KMT came to a deadlock, Presidential Office Secretary-general Yu Shyi-kun confirmed yesterday that Soong had met with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in July, before the preparatory meeting of the Economic Development Advisory Conference.
According to Yu, Chen had arranged the meeting because he had intended to invite Soong to become a vice chairman of the conference, and Chen and Soong had talked about "a wide range of issues."
Yu, however, would not confirm if Chen and Soong had discussed the possibility of a DPP-PFP coalition after the elections, saying he was not present during the meeting. Asked the same the question yesterday, Soong said that Chen and he had not touched upon the issue of forming a coalition government.
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