The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been acting in an outdated fashion in its handling of affairs related to its presidential nomination, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday.
Ker made the remarks when asked to comment on the meeting called by KMT former chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to coordinate presidential hopefuls former chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
"No matter how the KMT selects a pair of candidates on a presidential ticket, it will end up disdained by the people as the party has shown that it has no idea how to meet the public's expectations," Ker said.
After Ma was indicted on a corruption charge, the KMT annulled its black-gold exclusion clause which suspends the party membership of any person indicted.
The party is further planning to amend a regulation that suspends the membership of a person convicted of corruption in a first trial, in June, in an effort to retain Ma as a presidential candidate for the party in next year's presidential election.
The KMT had said that Ma's indictment was a result of the DPP using the judiciary as a political weapon to thwart Ma from running in the election.
"We don't understand why the KMT is shifting the responsibility [for corruption] that Ma was supposed to shoulder onto the DPP. Lien, Ma, Wang are all from the upper echelons of the KMT but there was no logic in what they said," Ker said.
DPP caucus whip Wang Hsing-nan (
"People don't care about the struggle within a party. What the people want to know is whether the party can nominate a candidate without a record of corruption," Wang said.
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