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.
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