, the party still has to contend with serious internal divisions. By all accounts, Ma is still intent on recruiting Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng to join his ticket as the vice presidential nominee.
However, Wang has repeatedly thrown cold water on the suggestion that he might play second fiddle on the KMT's ticket.
As one of the most seasoned politicians in the country with a strong following among native Taiwanese voters, Wang's support will be desperately needed if the KMT wants to avoid losing the third presidential contest in a row.
However, it appears that Wang is holding out on giving his support for the KMT's official nominee.
Wang had already declined to take part in a primary contest against Ma for the nomination after claiming the entire process was designed to ensure Ma's victory.
Wang also recently made public remarks hinting that Ma's status as a "mainlander" would not be acceptable to the majority of people in Taiwan.
In recent days, the news media has reported that Wang is unwilling to accept the vice presidential nomination because he thinks Ma might be knocked out of the race if he gets convicted of corruption charges pending against him.
The reports have said that if Ma is barred from continuing to run, Wang wants to be poised to pick up the KMT's banner as the new presidential candidate.
Who will eventually end up being the KMT's vice presidential nominee is a matter for the KMT and Ma Ying-jeou to settle internally.
However, we would like to see the KMT unite behind a single ticket so that the people of this country will enjoy a genuine choice between "pan-green" and "pan-blue" tickets when they go to the polls next March.
In 2000, when James Soong broke away from the KMT to mount an independent campaign, "pan-blue" voters had the complicated task of choosing between the official nominee Lien Chan and the maverick Soong.
Besides Soong's own political ambitions, the influence of then-President Lee Teng-hui over the party's nomination process was also blamed for producing the fatal rift.
The result of the rift was to hand victory to the DPP's Chen Shui-bian, who took the nation's highest office without garnering an outright majority of votes.
Even though Lien and Soong patched their differences and ran a united campaign in 2004, the damage had been done and Chen still managed to win by a razor-thin margin.
Now that it is time for the KMT to finally put a new face on its presidential ambitions, another rift has broken out between heavyweights, one that could cost the election.
This time, it appears that Wang may become a "spoiler," effectively handing victory to the DPP once again.
If the KMT is serious about providing leadership after eight years of stagnation under the Democratic Progressive Party, heavyweights in the party will need to persuade voters that they care more about the party and country than they do about themselves.
Since Ma is the obvious leader in all opinion polls and handily won the 2005 election for party chairman over Wang, the majority of KMT supporters clearly prefer Ma to take the lead in next year's presidential contest.
Rather than continue playing the sore loser, Wang should acknowledge this reality and stop impeding the party's ability to mount a serious challenge to the ruling DPP.
Lien Chan, who is still the KMT's honorary chairman, should use his influence to persuade Wang to accept reality and come on board.
Unfortunately, Lien appears reluctant to offend his former ally, and this is further harming party unity. If he accepted the offer to run on Ma's ticket, Wang would give the public the impression that he is selfless and generous.
Of course, if Wang really does not want to seek the office of vice president, this would be understandable.
Surely Wang enjoys far more power and influence in his current position as Legislative Yuan Speaker, and would have even more power in that position if the KMT regained control over the long-lost executive branch.
Even if Wang does not personally get along with Ma or agree with all of Ma's agenda, he would do the KMT a great service by at least refraining from dragging Ma down at every opportunity.
If Wang continues making trouble for Ma at every turn, he will go down in history as a "spoiler" who denied his party a chance at victory.
