Tue, Jan 23, 2007 page3

• KMT and PFP cement alliance

  MIXED REACTION While KMT lawmakers were divided over the formal partnership agreed by Ma-Ying jeou and James Soong, their PFP counterparts were more upbeat

  • By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTERS
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  The pan-blue parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP), yesterday formalized a party alliance, with the selection of one common candidate for the year-end legislative election their first priority.

  KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his PFP counterpart James Soong (宋楚瑜), who is currently in the US, signed a pact yesterday via a videoconference link.

  One part of the four-point pact that draws attention is that the two parties will jointly select the most electable candidate for year-end legislative system, in which single-member districts will be adopted, replacing the current multi-member districts.

  The pact, however, didn't outline how to proceed with the selection.

  "Each district has its own situation. The two parties will communicate with each other on details of the selection at a later date," Ma said.

  "The alliance was established for the sake of recovering the nation's hope and solving the problems the nation is facing rather than pursuing the interests of the two parties," Soong said.

  Soong retired from politics after polling only four percent of the vote in last month's Taipei mayoral election. The party, however, has yet to select a new chairman.

  KMT lawmakers were divided on the prospect of the alliance.

  "Chairman Ma is about to suffer a headache. The alliance would collapse if the two parties were in discord in even a district, which in turn would become a stick for the PFP to beat Ma with," KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) said.

  But KMT legislators Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said that without the alliance the two parties might destroy each other in the new legislative election system.

  The KMT's Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) said that he didn't feel good about the alliance because the PFP only cooperated with the KMT when it needed the KMT's resources.

  He said that PFP lawmakers didn't side with the KMT against the president's nominee of the nation's top prosecutor and watched idly during last Friday's legislative session when KMT lawmakers clashed with Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers.

  PFP lawmakers, on the other hand, said they believed Ma and Soong were sincere in forming the alliance and look forward to seeing it in operation.

  "Based on the experiences of two parties' cooperation in the past, regardless of success or failure, we have consensus in the alliance," said PFP Legislator Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交).

  PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said yesterday's pact signing ceremony was just the beginning and "there is still a long way to go to nominate legislative candidates".

  Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday had reservations about the new alliance.

  "Although we bless them for establishing the alliance, we still have doubts about the reason why the PFP had to establish it with the KMT at this time," caucus whip Chen Ching-chun (陳景峻) told a press conference.

  Chen said that what the DPP cared about was whether such an alliance would benefit the public, adding that people would make up their own minds about whether the parties only considered their own interests before officially teaming up.

  "Is it possible that the PFP will leave the issue of the KMT's stolen assets alone despite the public's expectation [to recover the assets] from now on? There is something odd about the hurry they were in to ally with each other," he said.

  Another DPP caucus whip, Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津), said she did not think the alliance would work because both parties have their own "practical concerns," by which she referred to the legislative election at the end of the year.

  Calling the establishment of the alliance "an unnecessary move," Yeh said the KMT and PFP may still be engaged in a competition rather than cooperation with each other for legislative nominations.

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