Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairperson candidate Lee Hsin (李新) yesterday urged a rival, KMT acting chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠), to resign from her post to ensure a level playing field for all candidates.
In front of several cardboard placards showing his campaign pledges, Lee showed his discontent with what he called the party’s unjust chairperson by-election by beating a drum in front of the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei.
“Both candidates in the KMT’s 2007 chairperson by-election — then-acting chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and then-legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) — stepped down from their posts as party acting chair and Central Standing Committee member respectively to prevent the public from making a fuss about the issue,” Lee said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Lee — who serves as a Taipei City councilor — said Huang should follow the pairs’ example and avoid giving the public the impression that she is “both a player and a referee in the game.”
Lee criticized Hung — who is also vying for the KMT chairpersonship — over her refusal to attend a public forum to be held on Saturday by several KMT-affiliated civic groups founded by younger party members.
The forum, called “Chairperson, may I ask a question?” invites all chairperson candidates to answer queries regarding the party’s future.
“Hung should publicly expound her ideas and values. If she is afraid to attend such an event, how is she going to lead the KMT and enable the party to act as a balance to the Democratic Progressive Party?” Lee said.
“Does Hung really think she can win the by-election lying down? What else can we expect from someone who is so arrogant — even without power?” he asked.
Lee urged KMT headquarters to abolish the 3 percent signature threshold necessary for hopefuls to register their candidacy, a mechanism that he said has been marred by forgery and fabrication.
He also called for transparency in the KMT headquarters’ determination of signature validity, saying they should let candidates know which of the signatures they obtain are deemed invalid rather than simply giving out a number.
Under the terms of the KMT’s by-election regulations, only hopefuls who collect signatures from at least 3 percent of all party members before Sunday can officially register as candidates in the March 26 election.
In related news, KMT Central Standing Committee member Lin Rong-te (林榮德) announced his decision to drop out of the by-election, bringing the number of contenders to four.
“For the sake of party solidarity and the bigger picture, as well as my aspiration to let someone more capable to lead the party and my mother’s strong opposition to my bid, I have determined to withdraw from the race,” Lin said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS