A former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson yesterday suggested that KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) should be replaced following the party’s elections losses on Saturday.
Using sports terms to make an analogy, former KMT spokesman and former KMT Youth Department director Hsiao Ching-yen (蕭敬嚴) wrote on Facebook that the “team’s manager should reflect on the team’s poor performance, and the head coach should take responsibility and be fired.”
KMT chairs in the past always resigned when the party lost in general elections, with the exception of 2004 when then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was shot while campaigning for re-election, Hsiao said, adding that it was “natural” that Chu should retire now to take responsibility for Saturday’s electoral defeats.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“The presidential candidate themselves might be to blame for their own poor performance in the polls,” he said. “However, the party chairman — who chooses the legislators-at-large — should ultimately take responsibility for the party’s election losses.”
The KMT secured only 4.67 million votes this time, compared with 5.52 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, he said, adding that the problem appeared to be more with the overall party image than with the candidate themselves.
This was demonstrated by a lack of unity within the party over the past year, and problems related to the selection of a candidate, he said.
Meanwhile, responding to the election results, Chu on Saturday evening posted to Facebook saying that the 52 legislative seats that the KMT came out of the election with this year showed that the public had put trust in the KMT.
“We are on the last mile toward bringing order to the Republic of China. The KMT must continue to reform for the sake of Taiwanese,” he wrote.
Chu is likely to be retained as KMT chairman, as the party hopes to concentrate its efforts on the legislature and on the supervision of the Democratic Progressive Party, a source said.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee head Lin Kuan-yu (林寬裕) yesterday echoed this sentiment, saying that the legislative wins had “united the KMT, which would not be knocked down again.”
The KMT Central Standing Committee would listen to suggestions and continue to reform, he said.
Separately, defeated KMT presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday said that his failure to work hard enough had cost him the election, and that he hoped Chu would continue to lead the KMT.
“If Chu does not want to lead the party, then I am worried nobody else would be able to do it,” KMT legislator-elect Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said, adding that she would fully support Chu staying on as the party chairman.
Former KMT legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said it was “not the time to discuss resignations.”
Additional reporting by Tung Kuan-yi, Ho Yu-hua and Ou Su-mei
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS