The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) national congress yesterday passed an amendment to the party’s charter to allow members to directly vote for local branch directors, an amendment seen by some as aiming to weaken the party chair’s hold on power.
Local branch directors had previously been appointed by the head of the party.
Under the amendment to Article 26 of the charter, local branches will be able to elect their own directors, though the party leadership will retain the authority to appoint deputy directors and to ratify local appraisal committee members.
Photo: CNA
The KMT now has two months to form a committee to implement the changes that were outlined in the local branch amendment.
In line with the amendment, the party could hold combined elections in August next year for its chairperson, local directors and party representatives, which would be a first since the KMT’s founding more than 100 years ago.
In her closing remarks to the congress, which was held at Zhongshan Hall on Yangmingshan in Taipei, KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said she supports any change that can expand membership and connect the party’s leadership with its grassroots constituents.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The KMT will move forward as quickly as possible by forming a task force to comprehensively investigate the qualifications, lengths of terms and fulfillment of obligations to central party leadership of local director candidates, so that direct elections can take place as soon as possible, she said.
However, reform does not “succeed on the first try,” she said.
“The Democratic Progressive Party allows its members to directly elect their local leadership, but it goes without saying whether they are biased or able to grasp society’s wishes, or what the public’s opinion of them is,” Hung said.
She said that she will try to “rebuild the party from ruins” by starting with “a perfect plan of action.”
Hung said she hopes passage of the amendment will not be seen as a victory by former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who has voiced interest in entering the chairmanship race next year.
The KMT congress, the first held since the party’s bruising defeat in the January presidential and legislative elections, was attended by several former party chairmen, including former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫).
Wu Den-yih and KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the former legislative speaker, also attended the one-day congress.
Initially, some senior party officials were opposed to amending the charter, but calls for reform were growing among grassroots members and they eventually ceded.
A KMT official who declined to be named said the party will meet with local branch officials in the coming days to discuss how to implement elections.
A regulation must be drafted for the regulation of the elections, and the Regulations Governing the Organization of Municipal and County Committees of the Chinese Nationalist Party (中國國民黨直轄市、縣[市]委員會組織規程) must be revised, the official said.
The regulations must be changed to reflect that branch directors will now be chosen through election, and that the KMT central leadership will retain the authority to appoint deputy directors and ratify local appraisal committee members, with the requirement that appointments must be made within a year of ratification.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS