The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) elections for its chairperson and delegates of its National Congress are to be held on July 24, the party announced yesterday.
Those seeking to contest the elections must pick up registration forms on June 3 or 4 and submit them on June 7 or 8, the KMT said in a statement.
Vote counting would begin the same day as the elections, it said, adding that a list of the elected candidates would be announced by July 27.
Photo: CNA
The dates were announced after the KMT’s Central Standing Committee approved them at a meeting in Taipei.
The committee also approved a requirement that candidates for KMT chairperson pay a registration fee of NT$200,000 (US$7,153) when they pick up their registration forms, and a NT$3 million processing fee and NT$10 million deposit when they register, the KMT said.
The deposit would be credited to the winning candidate’s annual fundraising obligations as chairperson and returned to unsuccessful candidates, the party said.
To encourage the participation of young people, the committee approved a rule allowing the chairperson to select up to 30 student delegates to join the 1,550-seat National Congress, the KMT said.
“Party elections are not a head-to-head battle, much less a zero-sum game,” KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said at the beginning of the committee meeting, before it was closed to reporters.
Rather, they are an exercise of democracy that decide how work is to be assigned in the party for the following few years, said Chiang, who is seeking re-election.
“We hope that the KMT, united under a fair system, can win back the confidence of a majority of Taiwanese and gain more opportunities to serve the nation, regardless of who is leading it,” he said.
Referendums to be held on Aug. 28 are “not only the party’s most important political task this year, but also a challenge that the whole party must face together,” Chiang said.
“The KMT has no other path but to unite,” he said.
The KMT has made two referendum proposals, one that asks voters if they agree that the government should impose a complete ban on imports of meat, offal and other pork products containing residue of the feed additive ractopamine, and one that asks if they agree that referendums should be held on the same day as national elections if an election is scheduled to take place within six months of a proposal to hold a referendum being approved.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS