The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was noncommittal yesterday on whether it would punish newly elected city councilors in the five special municipalities who failed to vote along party lines in Saturday’s council speaker and deputy speaker elections.
All disciplinary measures must be made in accordance with party procedures, KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said, adding that local charters must call a disciplinary meeting before it recommends punishments to the party headquarters.
Su made the remarks after a KMT meeting to review Saturday’s elections.
While local council heads are traditionally dominated by KMT and independent councilors, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), for the first time in the nation’s history, took both the speaker and deputy speaker seats in the Greater Tainan City Council, as well as deputy speaker seats in the Taipei and Greater Kaohsiung City Councils.
KMT Taipei branch director Pan Chia-sen (潘家森) told reporters after the meeting that although he “knew in his heart” who did not vote for the party candidate for deputy speaker, it would be hard to prove because he did not send party officials to oversee the vote.
Pan called on party members who did not toe the party line to come forward and admit their “mistake.”
However, as the front-line commanding officer, he should be held responsible for failing to maintain party discipline during the voting, he said.
Pan said on Saturday that between five and seven KMT members did not vote for the party’s candidate in the deputy speaker election and that the party would revoke the membership of those who violated party regulations by supporting DPP candidates.
Su also dismissed allegations that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT chairman, had meddled in the Greater Taichung elections.
Su was responding to a letter published by the Chinese-language China Times in its op-ed page. The writer, Su said, apparently based his allegations on a report published by the Chinese-language United Evening News on Saturday claiming that Ma had secretly met Taichung City Council Speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年) and convinced him to drop his re-election bid at the last minute.
Although Ma did attend an event in Taichung, it was on Friday, not Saturday, Su said.
Ma returned to Taipei immediately after the event and did not meet anyone secretly, he said.
Meanwhile, KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) urged state and local governments to refrain from asking media to run advertorials — the placement of government propaganda in the form of news reports, which has caused controversy in recent weeks and resulted in the resignation in protest of veteran China Times reporter Huang Je-bing (黃哲斌) on Dec. 12.
He said the party should take the matter seriously and discuss the means by which to address the growing problem, adding that the governments should promote policies in an open and fair fashion.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma yesterday instructed government agencies to map out a concrete plan to promote government policies, but that the bottom line was that promotional materials must be labeled as advertisements.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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