The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is planning to set up an “elite training class” to bring in more talent as the party prepares for the seven-in-one elections scheduled for 2014, party sources said.
The party has undergone a personnel reshuffle following its win in the Jan. 14 presidential election. Besides undertaking party reform, a major objective of the party is to launch a recruitment program as well as a training project for new talent, the sources said.
However, it had been rumored that several recruitment qualifications were set: Potential candidates had to be aged between 25 and 45, have a degree and not be descended from a political family.
The rumored requirements were said to have aroused anger among some party members, leading President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as party chairman, to dismiss the rumor, saying no such qualifications had ever been proposed, sources said.
The party has reportedly launched its recruitment scheme under the aegis of the “Chung-hsing [rejuvenation] Elite Group,” which was launched in 2004 by then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to offer training to newly recruited members.
The party’s Organizational Development Committee and the National Development Institute have been put in charge of the program, sources said. Sources said the number of trainees might exceed the previous 400 trained by the Chunghsing Elite Group.
Complaints have been filed over political families monopolizing grassroots level politics and blocking new talent from emerging, the sources said.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press