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KMT endorses Ma’s
chairmanship bid
LONE VOICE: The only KMT member to oppose the
re-election bid at a party meeting yesterday said doubts over a legally
stipulated two-term limit should be clarified first
By Peng Hsien-chun, Shih Hsiao-kuang and Stacy Hsu / Staff
reporters, with staff writer
Lee Chuan-chiao, a member of the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee, yesterday tells
reporters in Taipei that he does not support President Ma Ying-jeou’s bid to run
for the party chairmanship again.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was deemed
eligible to run for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairmanship again
following a motion passed by the KMT Central Standing Committee yesterday,
accompanied by a round of applause.
In the face of the recent controversy over Ma’s eligibility to be re-elected as
party chairman, the committee’s meeting yesterday appeared to be more of a
gathering for swearing allegiance to Ma, becuase nearly all of the participants
defended Ma’s eligibility to run for re-election.
The only voice of dissent at the meeting came from committee member Lee Wei-te
(李維德), who suggested that the KMT headquarters request an interpretation from
the Ministry of the Interior to clarify doubts over the two-term limit imposed
on leaders of civil organizations — including political parties — stipulated by
the Civil Organization Act (人民團體法).
“The party headquarters should have a legal basis on which to support its
definition that a term as chairmanship is only counted when the elected person
has served more than half of the full tenure, instead of just relying on
intra-party consensus,” Lee said.
Despite Lee’s opposition, committee members approved an ad hoc motion tabled by
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) saying that Ma’s re-election bid was
legitimate.
Ma was elected KMT chairman in 2005, but resigned in 2007 when he was embroiled
in a corruption case for allegedly misusing his special allowance fund during
his tenure as Taipei mayor.
The post was taken over by Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), who served as party chairman
until 2009. Ma was found not guilty of graft charges in 2008 and re-elected as
party chairman in 2009.
Earlier yesterday, KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) brushed off a media report
alleging that Ma had cited the 1951 Amendment to the US Constitution and the
Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) charter at a party meeting on Tuesday in
Zhongshan to discuss the president’s bid to be re-elected as KMT chairman.
“The report is a pure fabrication and violates journalistic ethics,” Yin said.
Yin was referring to a report published by the Chinese-language United Daily
News yesterday, alleging that the president had made the comments in a solemn
tone at the three-hour meeting in an apparent effort to justify his eligibility
to be re-elected.
The report added that Ma had first cited the 22nd Amendment to the US
constitution, which stipulates that: “No person shall be elected to the office
of the President more than twice and no person who has held the office of
President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a [four-year] term
… shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
Ma apparently then quoted the DPP’s charter, which stipulates that the party
chairman be elected in a vote by all party members for a two-year term and may
serve a second term at maximum, the report said.
“If a chairman with less than a year remaining in his term leaves his post, then
the [DPP’s] Central Executive Committee should select one of its members to
serve as the acting chairman. In the event where there is more than a year
remaining in a chairmanship term, all party members should vote to elect a new
chairman,” Ma was quoted by the report as saying.
For both US presidents and DPP chairmen, terms are only counted if the
post-holder has completed more than half of their full tenure, Ma was quoted as
saying in the report.
The president reportedly said that since he did not serve more than half of his
first four-year chairmanship due to the corruption case and Wu was chosen to
serve as the new chairman for the remainder of the term in 2007, then his first
tenure as KMT chairman should be counted as between 2009 and this year.
Ma’s alleged effort to cement his re-election bid by citing US constitutional
and DPP regulations has triggered criticism from both DPP legislators and his
party comrades.
DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) yesterday said the president had clearly let
power go to his head, as evidenced by his challenging of the nation’s legal
system and his desperate attempt to cling to the party chairmanship by
referencing legislation of foreign countries.
“Taiwan could be put in a worse situation if Ma wins another term as KMT
chairman. I advise Ma to fulfill his duties as president and focus on national
affairs,” Tsai said.
DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said Ma may have developed a “phobia of losing
power,” since it was this fear of relinquishing control that had spurred him
into making such a concerted effort to safeguard his KMT leadership.
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that the US constitution and the DPP charter
could not be used to legally justify Ma’s re-election.
“Compared with the Civil Organization Act and the Local Government Act (地方制度法)
that spring from the same legal system as the KMT’s charter, the US constitution
and DPP regulations are so completely different that they could hardly help Ma
argue a legal justification,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that since eligibility for re-election has
more to do with the KMT’s charter than any other set of regulations, the party
headquarters should try to perfect the charter so it can be used to legally
support Ma’s bid, instead than making references to irrelevant documents.
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