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KMT dismisses media
reports
CAUSING A STIR: Although the KMT dismissed
reports about a meeting between Ma and top aides, a spokesman said they did lead
to discussions among party members
By Mo Yan-chih / Staff reporter
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday dismissed media reports which
alleged that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) cited the US constitution to justify
his eligibility to be re-elected as KMT chairman.
A report in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper)
yesterday alleged that Ma, in a closed-door meeting with top aides following a
KMT Central Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday, cited a 1951 amendment to the
US constitution 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 allegedly said that since he did not serve more than half of his first
four-year term due to a corruption case, and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung
(吳伯雄) was chosen to serve out the remainder of that term in 2007, his first
tenure as KMT chairman should be counted as between 2009 and this year.
The aides agreed that such argument could put an end to the disputes over the
issue, the Liberty Times article said.
A report published on Wednesday by the Chinese-language United Daily News made a
similar allegation, but was also dismissed by the KMT.
KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) yesterday again dismissed the allegation and said
that Ma never held a closed-door meeting with top aides following Tuesday’s
meeting, and that he did not cite the US constitution when discussing the issue.
“There have been a lot of discussions and opinions on the issue, and there were
some discussions among party members on the US constitution reference after an
academic raised the topic in a letter to a local news outlet,” Wei said.
“However, President Ma did not make any comments on the issue in order to avoid
any conflict of interest,” he added.
Amid the ongoing disputes over Ma’s re-election bid, Legislative Speaker Wang
Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday voiced his support for Ma to serve as party chairman
denying that he was against Ma’s attempt to be re-elected.
“I’ve always been a supporter of the party-state system. I’ve not been involved
in handling party affairs and it will be the KMT’s job to clarify the issue. My
priority is to do my job in the legislature,” Wang said.
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