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Vote-swapping rampant in KMT poll, sources say
By Shih Hsiao-kuan / Staff reporter
Despite party regulations forbidding vote-swapping schemes, rumors of such practices among candidates eyeing a seat in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) upcoming Central Standing Committee members election, slated to take place on Aug. 30, have been rife, sources said.
The vote-swapping schemes refer to committee candidates banding together to ensure each other’s election by procuring the relevant number of votes from party delegates needed to gain election.
In view of the July 31 and Aug. 1 gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung that killed 30 and injured more than 300, a party insider condemned the ongoing campaign activities as hurting the party’s public image.
“The ever-existing banquet-style campaign activities are still ongoing in the face of a national catastrophe. This is just bad for the party’s public image,” the party insider said.
According to party sources, there are currently two branches of “vote-swapping alliance” that are relatively large in size; one is led by a heavyweight Central Standing Committee member based in southern Taiwan and the other organized by local politicians in central Taiwan.
After the National Party Congress last year passed an amendment to the regulations governing the election of the Central Standing Committee, each party delegate can now only vote for 16 candidates instead of 32, and the change has made the competition for votes even fiercer, sources said.
Members of the Central Standing Committee meet weekly to approve major policies, and the body had been regarded as the highest decisionmaking authority in the party.
However, the committee’s role was weakened after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was first elected party chairman in 2005 and began meeting with party officials to discuss major decisions in a separate weekly meeting.
source: Taipei Times
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