The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday decided to take disciplinary action against members of the party's regional office in Yunlin County for what it described as an administrative lapse that caused the most recent conflict between the two men running for the KMT chairmanship.
The two candidates, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), have been at loggerheads over the number of party members who are eligible to vote in Saturday's chairmanship election.
After the party's regional headquarters originally listed only about 1,000 members on the county's voting roll, a spate of complaints led to the regional office on Tuesday issuing a new list containing 6,818 voters.
Suspicion
The Ma camp reacted with suspicion to the sudden addition of such a large number of people.
The regional office on Tuesday claimed that it had invalidated the membership of the majority of voters in the county as a result of an administrative mix-up.
The KMT's Evaluation and Discipline Committee yesterday decided to take disciplinary action against members of the Yunlin County regional office for the administrative lapse, which it said had resulted in the recent controversy.
"According to the party's regulations, all members of office, including director Cheng Chin-cheng (鄭慶珍), will be demoted," KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) said yesterday.
Distance
Meanwhile, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Pro-actively extending his congratulations to the election's eventual winner at the party's Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday morning, Lien confirmed reports in the Chinese-language media that he will head to the US straight after casting his vote in the chairmanship election on Saturday morning.
He will be leaving on a trip to Washington, where he is slated to deliver a speech at a leaders' meeting of the International Democrat Union, Lien said yesterday.
To whoever wins the election, he offers his congratulations, Lien said, while the loser is encouraged to be unremitting in his efforts for the party.
In the last moments before the election, Lien said, he urges all party members to vote, given this election's status as an important milestone in the democratization of the KMT.
Furthermore, while both Wang's and Ma's efforts while campaigning around the country are to be commended, it is important that they keep up a "gentlemanly competition" to preserve the positive image of the KMT, he said.
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