While President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, expected the party’s legislator-at-large nomination list to boost support for the party ahead of January’s presidential and legislative elections, the KMT Central Committee vote held on Saturday to approve the list saw its lowest turnout ever as half of the members forfeited their votes.
The KMT on Wednesday unveiled its list of 34 legislator-at-large candidates, with advocates for disadvantaged groups and experts in labor affairs, tax reform, law and medical science leading the list.
Sources said the party’s Central Standing Committee (CSC) on Wednesday passed the the list according to the will of “Chairman Ma” despite differing opinions held by some CSC members who did not to speak out.
In accordance with KMT regulations, the list of legislators-at-large nominees needs be approved by Central Committee members. Each nominee must gain approval from at least half of the Central Committee members attending a meeting, or else their nomination will be canceled.
Those that hold the power to vote include the 210 Central Committee members, as well as another 13 members, including the party chairman, former chairmen and the deputy chairmen.
KMT sources said Saturday’s Central Committee meeting not only saw the lowest attendance rate of any of the Committee’s meetings, with former chairmen Lien Chan (連戰) and Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) absent, but the legislator-at-large nomination list also passed by the lowest threshold of any such list.
Sources said that more than half of the Central Committee members skipped the meeting, while the party gave alternative members in attendance temporary powers to vote.
The Central Committee members’ absence was a “silent protest” because of their unwillingness to support the list, yet at the same time they did not wish to oppose the nominations, the source said.
All 34 nominated legislators-at-large passed the Central Committee vote, the source said, adding that the KMT said there were 150 votes in total, with 22 votes coming from alternative committee members given temporary voting powers.
In 2007, when the KMT first began the practice of having Central Committee members approve legislator-at-large nominees through a vote, 212 committee members voted at the time.
The KMT said Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) got the most yes votes, with only one person dissenting and three blank votes. Senior KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) who was ranked sixth on the list, had eight dissenting votes and three blanks, holding the second-best score.
KMT Central Standing Committee member Lee Te-wei (李德維), ranked 29th in the list, came in third in terms of votes, with seven dissenting votes and nine blanks.
Despite a KMT’s press release saying that representatives of the underprivileged, such as Child Welfare League Foundation executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) and Taiwan Organization for Disadvantaged Patients secretary-general Yang Yu-hsing (楊玉欣), received high party support, Alicia Wang received 16 dissenting votes and 11 blanks on Saturday, while Yang received 12 dissenting votes and six blanks, placing them well behind other candidates who are experienced politicians.
The sources said Saturday’s vote showed that candidates who had contributed and sacrificed for the party got the most approval, while more “foreign” candidates had mediocre to poor voting results, showing a gap in the thinking on this list between the rank and file of the party and higher echelons.
In his address to the Saturday meeting, Ma said the nomination list highlighted the party’s attention to minorities and its respect for experts in diverse backgrounds, adding that party reform efforts should attract public support and help the party win the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 14.
Ma also lauded KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and KMT caucus whip Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) for withdrawing their applications for legislator-at-large positions to help the party accomplish its goal of including advocates and experts from various backgrounds in the list.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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