Liu Chien-kuo of the Democratic Progressive Party won the seat in the Legislative Yuan vacated by disqualified Kuomintang lawmaker Chang Suo-wen by a landslide to start a close one-two punch blow to President Ma Ying-jeou, who insisted on fielding a clean new face rather than Chang's father.

Chang Keng-hui, the Kuomintang candidate Ma nominated, was supported by Chang Yung-wei, former magistrate of Yunlin fired after corruption conviction in 2005. He served a one-year sentence.

The former magistrate is an elder brother of Chang Li-shan, who also campaigned for the routed Kuomintang nomineee.

“My brother and I were maligned for rigging the by-election,” Chang Li-shan told a hastily called press conference at Touliu.

She charged Chang Hui-yuan and his son Suo-wen with falsely accusing her family of “trying to win all (posts).” She was a Kuomintang lawmaker. The family made every effort to get Chang Keng-hui win, and she was running for magistrate of the southern Taiwan county.

“After long consultation with my brother, I decided to withdraw from the magistracy election,” she said in tears.

Her eleventh-hour announcement stunned the Kuomintang leadership.

Voters will go to the polls to elect 17 magistrates and mayors across the country on December 5. But election commissions have to start issuing applications forms for candidacy on October 1. Registration of candidacy will be completed between October 5 and 9.

The Kuomintang, which just elected a new central committee on Sunday, was taken aback. “All of us learned of Chang's withdrawal from a TV news conference she held,” said a highly placed ruling party source.

“We are having more than enough trouble getting ready for the registration of our candidates in quite a number of counties,” the source said. “She's adding insult to damage,” he complained.

Intraparty rivalries have made it difficult to field Kuomintang candidates in the counties of Hualien, Pingtung, Hsinchu and Taitung. A few other magistrates, including Lu Kuo-hua of Yilan, are likely to lose their reelection bid.

“And now we are compelled to name a new candidate for magistrate of Yunlin in less than a week,” the source lamented.

Anybody named has to face Su Chih-fen, the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party magistrate.

“I was greatly surprised by Chang Li-shan,” said Su, who did not show joy over the Kuomintang disarray in her county.

One easiest way out of the quandary is for the Kuomintang chairman to dissuade Chang Li-shan from withdrawing from the yearend race.

Wu Poh-hsiung, outgoing Kuomintang chairman, won't be persuasive enough. It takes President Ma Ying-jeou to name a new candidate and settle all intraparty rivalries.

But Ma will wait until October 17 to double as chairman of the ruling party. The Kuomintang rescheduled a national party congress where Ma would be sworn in as its chairman right after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan August 8-9, leaving in its wake more than 700 people killed and a third of Taiwan under flood waters and mudslides. It was originally set to take place on September 12.

Leaders of the ruling party urged President Ma to take over from Wu at once to tide over the party crisis, the source said.

Ma won't, his spokesman Tony Wang said.

“President Ma communicates excellently with Chairman Wu of the Kuomintang,” Wang said. “There's no barrier of communication between them,” he added.

Moreover, Wang said, Chang Chun-po who was President Ma's secretary-general is now the secretary-general of the Kuomintang.

“So, any and all matters concerning the selection of candidates will be settled smoothly,” Wang pointed out.

In other words, President Ma wants Wu and Chan to handle the crisis which may result in another election loss in December, further eroding the support for the ruling party.