Honorary Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan urged his own party yesterday to decide in time to boycott the two upcoming referendums on Taiwan's admission to the United Nations.
Speaking at a tea reception at Ma Ying-jeou's presidential campaign headquarters, Lien said he wants the Kuomintang to make a decision in time to abort the referendums scheduled to take place alongside the March 22 presidential election.
"Don't let the referendums get hitched with the election," Lien said.
One of the referendums is sponsored by the Kuomintang. The opposition party wants Taiwan to return to the United Nation as the Republic of China.
President Chen Shui-bian called the other referendum on accession to the world body under the name of Taiwan. It is opposed by China as well as the United States and most other world powers.
Beijing considers it a move toward de jure independence of Taiwan and tacitly threatens to invade the island if the referendum is adopted.
The United States opposes the referendum for it is inconsistent with President Chen's "four-no" pledge to keep the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
"We shouldn't allow the Democratic Progressive Party to hold its referendum and hijack the presidential election," Lien said. "The election and the referendums are two separate events," he added. "They shouldn't be held together."
As the Central Election Commission has already scheduled the referendums and the election to take place at the same time, the only option left to the Kuomintang is to call on voters not to collect referendum ballots on March 22.
The Kuomintang did previosly in order to boycott the two previous referendums of Jan. 12. The referendums were held together with the legislative elections which the Kuomintang won a majority.
Lien did not urge the Kuomintang to boycott again, but instead to de-link the referendums from the presidential election. But he called on his party to make a similar call to invalidate the U.N. bid referendums.
"In my capacity as an ordinary member of the Kuomintang," Lien said, "I strongly urge the party to take a key decision in due time."
Wu Po-hsiung, Kuomintang chairman, promised to make the decision "at an appropriate time."
Ma Ying-jeou, the Kuomintang standard bearer, said he would abide by any decision the party may make.
An increasingly large number of opinion leaders are calling to abort the U.N. bid votes. The New Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union have joined forces in opposing the referendums.
Huang Kun-hui, TSU chairman, is ready to meet Wu and Frank Hsieh, Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate, shortly to urge them to get an amendment to the Referendum Law adopted in time to abort the March 22 referendums.
It may be too late to amend the law in less than three weeks, but Huang has some leverage. He may promise TSU help to whichever party supports the amendment.
|
| TRANSPORTATION
| CLASSIFIEDS
