PFP lawmaker Fu kun-chi said yesterday his two colleagues, Chang Hsien-yao and Lee Fu-tien, did not represent the party when they signed the pact with Wu Den-yih, secretary-general of the Kuomintang.

Under that pact, the Kuomintang will let at least five PFP candidates run in as many constituencies unopposed by its candidates.

In exchange for that concession, the PFP refrained from boycotting a Legislative Yuan plenary session on that day to help the Kuomintang adjourn it, sending back to the steering committee a Democratic Progressive Party-sponsored bill aimed at disqualifying former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou as presidential candidate in the 2008 race.

Both parties also agreed to have PFP candidates for Legislative Yuan membership at large listed as Kuomintang nominees.

Eligible voters will go to the polls in December to elect a new Legislative Yuan, which will halve its seats to 113 from the current 225.

Voters are expected to cast two ballots, one for a candidate and the other for a political party, to elect 79 regional lawmakers, one from each constituency, and 34 at large, according to proportional representation.

KMT secretary-general Wu said yesterday the merger was on course.

It will take place when the current Legislative Yuan completes its three-year term on December 31, Wu announced.

“There is no difficulty,” Wu said, “if the PFP agrees to have its candidates registered as ours on the list, from which legislators at large will be chosen. And it naturally follows that all regional lawmakers will be our own.”

But PFP lawmaker Fu said the PFP did not authorize “anybody” to talk with the Kuomintang.

“So far as I know,” Fu pointed out, “consensus of the party is to wait and see for the next two weeks before the issue of merger should be tackled.”

The two PFP legislators who inked the agreement quoted James Soong, their former party chairman, as emphasizing the importance of cooperation in what is known as the pan-blue alliance.

Without cooperation, the alliance will lose the legislative elections as well as the presidential race in March next year, Chang cited Soong as saying.

But a merger of the two opposition parties’ candidates is easier said than done.

Most of the incumbent PFP legislators, under pressure for reelection, fear the Kuomintang is marginalizing their party.

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