The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) failed to elect its first-ever caucus general convener after the two candidates, Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) and Apollo Chen (陳學聖), tied in yesterday’s vote.
The two candidates received 14 votes each from 29 KMT lawmakers who showed up for the election, with one invalid vote and six lawmakers abstaining.
KMT Central Policy Committee chief executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元), who presided over the election, said KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has high expectations for the improvement of autonomy within the party caucus and of its “combative power,” adding that while in the past the work of the KMT caucus whip had been shared by the committee chief director — a position that had been doubled by a lawmaker until Tsai — and the caucus secretary-general, with an elected general convener, the autonomy of the caucus would be improved.
Hung last month said that the person elected by the caucus “would be the deputy executive director of the party’s Central Policy Committee,” a position that would be under the leadership of the party-assigned policy committee’s chief executive director.
According to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier this week, Sufin said that he would not take the position of committee deputy executive director if elected, but would coordinate with Tsai.
“We are still a team; it would not signify an opposing stance against the party headquarters,” he said.
According to local media, party caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) had Hung’s support before he said that he would not run for general convener on Wednesday, the last day of the registration for candidacy.
The United Daily News cited an unnamed KMT lawmaker as saying that with Lin opting out, Tsai’s influence would be kept outside of the caucus.
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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