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Apr 2, 2007

Wang not running; Shih's third force

Head of the Legislative Yuan Wang Jin-pyng announced today that he will not register for the KMT primary. He made several complaints that are far more controvertial, divisive and irritated than most of the things this man says (he's my favorite KMT man because he rarely speaks nonsense, even if that means he's kept quiet on obvious KMT contradictions and problems).

Wang complained that a minority had control over the ethnic majority in the party; questioned if such a minority of political experts and stars had the qualifications to rule over the majority; and said the whole procedure was rigged from the beginning with no chance of a fair contest. He will focus on maintaining the KMT majority in the legislature (a good political issue to grab since the KMT will stop the KMT without question in that election due to the districting and seat numbers.

Ma, sees the problem as a minority trying to avoid discrimination and be liked enough by the majority to get elected, and feels his odds are good.

This also doesn't bode well for future Ma-Wang cooperation. I believe Wang's plan involves sitting out and waiting for Ma to be charged, even if he is running no matter what (thanks Michael).

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Former DPP chairman and leader of the "Depose A-bian" campaign, Shih Ming-teh, has announced the next phase of his plan.

Shih said that while he would not run in the year-end legislative elections, the anti-Chen campaign would organize a "third force" and nominate candidates to offer the people a choice beyond the green-versus-blue division.

Shih said that while he would not run in the year-end legislative elections, the anti-Chen campaign would organize a "third force" and nominate candidates to offer the people a choice beyond the green-versus-blue division.

He said campaign staffers had anticipated that "Chen or the Democratic Progressive Party could break Chen's promise made last Nov. 5 that he would step down if first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) were found guilty in the first trial [in the `state affairs' fund case]."

... He did not, however, provide any specific details about his new anti-Chen campaign.
Now this is a threat to the KMT and PFP since many wanna-be legislators won't get nominated. The KMT already has 152 people registered to run for a mere 113 nominations. That doesn't include all the city councils and local officials who had wanted to run but were denied the right to to register. And splitting over to the Shih camp may be seen as safer by some KMT guys than switching over to the DPP side.

I'm not sure Shih will be able to exert any influence at all, but any influence he does exert will be bad news for the blues.

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2 comments:

David said...

I think the KMT are digging a big hole for themselves. But at the same time their various actions mean they will be able to spin some sort of conspiracy theory that will be easily bought and believed if they lose the elections.

阿牛 said...

I agree.

As usual, the KMT seems to be trying to put itself in the worst possible position before the election. They still can't stand to lose, but they know there's a possibility they will, so they need to start spinning the conspiracy theory now in order to be seen as more credible when the time comes.

Why else would you nominate a guy who could go to jail close to the election, leaving you without a candidate for the election?