Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) yesterday filed a civil suit against KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) over party headquarters’ decision to move next year’s KMT chairperson election forward by two months.
The committee on Wednesday last week passed a motion to change the date of the election, despite fewer than 10 of the 40 committee members being present.
According to the KMT’s preliminary schedule, the chairperson and representative elections were scheduled for May 20, followed by Central Committee and Central Standing Committee elections on July 8 and July 29 respectively.
The Central Standing Committee on Wednesday also passed a plan to end separate votes for party representatives of the Huang Fu-hsing branch, a special branch of the KMT whose members are military veterans or their family members.
Yao said that the decision to change the voting regulations and the electoral structure less than six months before the elections was “unfair” to party representatives.
He asked the Taipei District Court to make last week’s motions invalid and to stop the party from enacting the new election-related measures.
The court said it had assigned the case to Judge Chang Yu-chia (張宇葭).
Meanwhile, outside the court, a group calling themselves the Blue Sky Action Alliance shouted slogans in support of Hung.
One alliance member called Yao former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) “running dog,” adding: “Those two should get out of the KMT.”
Alliance members said it was their mission to protect the KMT and rid it of “traitors” like Yao.
“Long ago people talked of ridding the country of Manchus and restoring China,” they said. “Today we must get rid of traitors to restore the Republic of China.”
The group shouted slogans such as: “Get rid of Yao and Wang” and “Be patriotic and loyal to the party, support Hung Hsiu-chu.”
One party member, who declined to be named, said the main reason behind Yao’s haste in bringing legal action against Hung is the plan to end the Huang Fu-hsing branch’s separate election of party representatives.
The changes to the chairperson election are of secondary importance to those opposing the motion, the member said, adding that members of the Huang Fu-hsing branch account for nearly 90,000 people, one-third of all KMT members.
According to the proposed changes, the ceiling on Huang Fu-hsing representatives would be removed, putting the squeeze on the prolocalization faction, the member said.
Among the KMT’s intra-party factions, there is a pro-localization and a pro-China faction.
Wang, a Kaohsiung native, is regarded by many pan-blue supporters as the key representative of the prolocalization faction.
SCANDAL: There are still discussions over whether a ban from being coaches, referees or agents should be imposed on the players, the association said The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan’s basketball governing body, on Tuesday said that it has handed lifetime bans to 10 players accused of game-fixing and breaches of betting rules. In a statement on Tuesday, the CTBA said it has revoked the registration of nine former players from the semi-professional Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Yulon Lexgen Dinos and one from the Taiwan Beer Leopards of the professional T1 League. The nine former Dinos players are Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩), and Senegalese center
It took director Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) nearly a decade to complete Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), a deft chronicle of Malaysia’s May 13 incident told through one woman’s search for her brother and father. Although only his second feature, it led the field at yesterday’s Golden Horse Awards with nine nominations. Chong said it had been a struggle to get people to share their memories of the intercommunal violence following the 1969 national election, known among the country’s ethnic Chinese community as “513.” “My father, for example, would shut the conversation down if my mother or grandma even mentioned the topic,” Chong said
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted
RSS