The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday elected 32 members to its Central Standing Committee (CSC) amid a spate of allegations of vote-swapping schemes and bribery.
More than half of the so-called “26 Alliance” — a coalition of 26 committee candidates that a group of younger party members accused of banding together to ensure each other’s election — were elected.
The alliance reportedly includes KMT legislators and committee members Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊櫻), Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) and Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳), as well as fellow CSC members Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) and Liu Da-bei (劉大貝).
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Huang topped the polls again this year, receiving 1,100 of the votes. She was followed by Lee, Yao, Yang and Liu.
Committee member Hsu Hsien-rong (許顯榮), who is also alleged to be a member of the 26 Alliance, was not elected.
The alliance members have been accused of pledging to procure votes between 20 and 40 party delegates to secure the 520 to 1,000 votes needed to be elected.
Leaders of local factions in southern cities are reportedly behind the alliance’s formation, which is seen as part of efforts to deepen and extend their influence ahead of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leaving office in 2016.
Ma, who is also KMT chairman, has met with internal challenges to his chairmanship since he was re-elected to the post earlier this year. Amid low approval ratings in his role as president, several younger KMT members known to have close ties to former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) called for Ma not to run prior to the poll.
Ma’s rival for the party leadership, committee member Hsieh Kun-hong (謝坤宏), whose candidacy was declared invalid by the party — citing insufficient support from the public — was also re-elected to the committee yesterday.
In addition to the vote-swapping allegations, yesterday’s election was also overshadowed by the KMT’s forcible removal last week of Central Committee member Pan Chun-rong’s (潘俊榮) from the race over accusations of bribery.
Pan allegedly hosted dinner banquets for party delegates last week during which he gave each attendees a red wine gift set worth NT$1,500.
The 32 CSC members were elected from 45 candidates by more than 1,000 party delegates. The turnout was 94.66 percent.
The CSC’s 32 members meet weekly to approve major policies and the body had been regarded as the highest decisionmaking authority in the party.
However, the committee’s role was weakened after Ma was first elected party chairman in 2005 and began meeting with party officials to discuss major decisions in a separate weekly meeting.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS