PFP Chairman James Soong (楚瑜) yesterday said it is not important who takes the lead and who turns out to be the running mates in the joint ticket that would be fielded by the KMT and the PFP in the 2004 presidential campaign, as long as it's a combination that will stand a big chance of winning.
Soong made the remark in response to a question as to whether he would accept an arrangement in which he would be the running mate of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), if both eventually decided to join the campaign.
Soong, who stood uncontested, was re-elected yesterday as the PFP's chairman with 99.46 percent of the votes, in the first direct chairmanship election held by the party.
The polling was conducted via correspondence among party members. A total of 62,002 voting slips were sent out, of which only 39,303 were returned, resulting in a turnout rate of 63.39 percent.
Soong received 39,091 votes, with the remaining 212 votes were rendered invalid.
Soong pledged that the PFP would work to become a democratic and innovative party and to fulfill its responsibility as an opposition party.
He added that the party would also prepare itself well for winning future preesidential elections.
Soong, however, said that now is not the right time to talk about the presidential candidacy. He said he has never discussed with Lien how the positions would be shared.
"What we should do now is to take the time to learn what the public wants. Positions are not important, because the priority is to win the chance to serve the people," Soong said.
Although Soong has not yet announced his candidacy, he is widely believed to be ready to join the electoral race again in 2004.
Lien also declined to confirm whether he would join the race or not, but he said on Tuesday that he would not rule out the possibility.
Soong said every party hopes for the chance to serve the people directly, and the PFP will not shirk its duty if it is called upon by the people to resolve their problems.
Soong said he understands that many people are disappointed by the DPP's performance and these people are expecting that the KMT and PFP will join forces to accomplish another transfer of power in 2004.
"It is most important to keep the people's needs in mind and to put aside partisan interests," Soong asserted.
Soong said that the KMT and the PFP must be able to demonstrate their ability to solve the problems that the DPP has failed to solve.
He criticized the DPP for chanting too many slogans but doing too little over the past two years while the party has been in power.
He said that the DPP government had decided not to build any new reservoirs and had assured the people that there wouldn't be water shortages, while it also intended to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and promised there wouldn't be power shortages, Soong pointed out.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS