The pan-blue merger remained a divisive issue for the People First Party (PFP) as two PFP legislators urged the pan-blue to complete the merger before the December legislative elections. Additionally, the party again exchanged fire with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on the issue yesterday.
PFP legislator Diane Lee (
"The KMT, the PFP, the New Party and other pan-blue groups should halt their grievances against each other and push for the merger as soon as possible. We should not allow the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to score in the election again due to differences inside the pan-blue camp," the two legislators said.
"The KMT established the Republic of China: the party has got a long tradition and respectable status, and it would be difficult to alter the name and be accepted by the pan-blue supporters. So we are proposing that after the merger, the new party should keep the name of KMT," they said.
But the Lees' declaration conflicted with party chairman James Soong's (
In reaction to the Lees' statement, the PFP reiterated the timetable mapped out by Soong and said it would be unwise to rush to complete the merger before the elections.
"The KMT and PFP should not merge just for the merger's sake, otherwise a rushed merger may become the beginning of troubles for a new party and we could be kissing governing goodbye for good," PFP Deputy Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (
Chin also said that the party did not object to the name the Chinese Nationalist Party for the merged party, but that the details should be worked out by the joint task force on the merger after consulting with the public.
"Due to the pressure of the election, individual legislators may have their own opinions about the merger, but they have ignored the party's considerations," Chin said.
In addition the internal conflicts over the merger, the PFP yesterday attacked the KMT's faction "Taiwan New Hope Link" for following former president Lee Teng-hui's ideology and promoting independence in a symposium the faction held last weekend.
The PFP warned that the faction's ideology could interfere or even pose a threat to the pan-blue merger.
"The DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union can make independence as one of their choices, but it is not appropriate for the KMT, PFP, or New Party to do so," PFP caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (
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