Affirming the KMT's desire to cooperate with the People First Party (PFP), KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (
Lin said the move is the result of a consensus reached between KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
During the meeting last month, Lien had sought the PFP's support for incumbent speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (
"If the PFP decides to recommend a candidate for vice speaker, we certainly will give our support," Lin said.
In response to Lin's statement, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (
Hsieh said the PFP will judge the eventual candidates according to their abilities, especially their ability to boost the efficiency of legislative operations.
Three-term legislator Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) and David Chung (鍾榮吉), the party's secretary-general who will become a legislator-at-large in the next legislature, have shown interest in running for the position of vice speaker.
Lien and Soong are expected to meet again some time before the next legislature begins on Feb. 1. Soong said on Wednesday that the meeting may take place next week at the earliest.
This is the first time that the KMT has clearly revealed its strategy for the speakership and vice speakership election races.
The announcement came one day after some PFP lawmakers had urged the KMT to take a clear stand as to which party it intends to cooperate with, threatening to select candidates from among themselves.
The KMT and PFP will control 68 and 46 seats respectively in the next legislature. By cooperating with each other, the two parties in theory will be able to secure a marginal majority in the 225-member legislature.
The KMT has been in a dilemma as to whether it is to cooperate with the PFP or the DPP in order to get Wang re-elected.
Wang has been on friendly terms with both the DPP and TSU and is a candidate favored by both parties, but the KMT leadership's decision to cooperate with the PFP may force the DPP to nominate its own candidate for speaker, which may in turn threaten Wang's re-election bid.
Some pro-localization lawmakers with the KMT, led by Shyh Jong-shyong (徐中雄), are against KMT-PFP cooperation, though they do support Wang's re-election bid.
Shyh, who is chief of the Generation-E Alliance, a subgroup consisting of KMT lawmakers, has said that members of the alliance may opt to "vote for themselves" in case the vice speaker candidate is unacceptable to them.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (
But Wang yesterday denied that he had received any such messages.
Meanwhile, Lin Jih-jia (
The DPP, on the other hand, has so far been vague about whether it wants to support Wang or nominate its own candidates for the speaker and vice speakership posts.
While DPP lawmaker Trong Chai (蔡同榮) has expressed an interest in the speakership, those eyeing the vice speakership include Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌), Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) and Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
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