Details of the pan-blue joint presidential election campaign lineup featuring KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"The KMT will complete its party-nomination process by the end of March," Lin said, adding that the PFP was expected to complete its internal party nomination procedure around that time as well.
Lin made the comments at a forum held by the KMT to discuss legislative issues that the party wishes to push during the new legislative session.
Earlier this month, Lien and Soong signed a memorandum of understanding on the formation of an KMT-PFP alliance and agreed to run together on a joint ticket in next year's presidential election.
Although both parties had said that the Lien-Soong ticket is not definite as it awaits approval from the parties through their respective party-nomination processes, it is generally thought that these procedures are mere formalities.
According to Lin, the KMT is expected during the party's routine weekly Central Standing Committee meeting tomorrow to pass an amendment to its internal regulations that will allow its presidential nominee to pair with a non-KMT member.
"The subsequent party nomination process will pick up from there," Lin said, adding that it was possible that the party would skip its primary if it turned out that, during the procedural nomination process, only one person has registered to run for next year's presidential election.
According to KMT rules, once the presidential candidate is formalized, the candidate must then nominate his running mate and have the pairing affirmed by the party's Central Standing Committee before it is forwarded to the national party congress for its approval of the ticket.
At the forum, Lien stressed that the alliance is mainly aimed at upgrading the quality of the nation's democracy and its national competitiveness and not of divvying up the spoils of office as the DPP and many independent political observers have suggested.
Echoing Lien's remarks, Soong, at a separate event, said that the inter-party cooperation was one way to effectively stabilize the nation's political development.
The KMT-PFP cooperation has "Eight Nos and Two Yeses," said Soong at the PFP's legislative caucus meeting, held in Miaoli.
"The inter-party cooperation is not a return to `black-gold' politics nor is it old-men politics, closed-door politics or a zero-sum game," he said.
"It is also not a divvying up of spoils of offices nor lack of pragmatism," he said.
Soong also tried to reassure PFP members that the party would not evaporate as a result of its partnership with the KMT nor, he said,would the partnership betray Taiwan's interest.
"The partnership will be, however, be an effective campaigning and administrative team that's a result of `one plus one equals two,'" Soong said gnomically. "And it will faithfully carry out tasks that further Taiwan's vision and development."
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
RSS