Fu may have to declare candidacy soon

Registration will be closed on Friday.

The ruling Kuomintang has been having trouble electing a magistrate candidate in the scenic east Taiwan county, its traditional power base. As a matter of fact, the party has never lost a magistrate election in the county.

With the election scheduled for December 5, the race is a three-way tie among three Kuomintang rivals, one of them having bolted the party to run as an independent.

Chen Chih-ming, deputy magistrate of Hualien, resigned from the Kuomintang last week. Fu is certain to follow suit.

Barred from running by the ruling party, Fu is favored to win the race as an independent. He can't be nominated by the Kuomintang, whose bylaw forbids anyone convicted in any trial to stand for any public office.

Fu has been convicted of insider trading and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is appealing to the Taiwan high court. According to the election law, he may run, get elected and serve until the Supreme Court hands down the final guilty verdict.

The Kuomintang nominated Tu Lih-hua, an advisor at the Hualien County Government. She quit as advisor yesterday.

Tu complained that Chen, who is supported by outgoing magistrate of Hualien Hsieh Shen-shan, is collaborating with the Democratic Progressive Party.

“The party should force Chen to resign as deputy magistrate lest he should use the government resources at his disposal,” Tu urged.

But the ruling party did not want to offend Hsieh. It only promised to persuade Hsieh to campaign for Tu but did not want to force Chen to resign.

The opposition party said it would decide to name a candidate by Wednesday.

However, the chances are that it will not field a candidate and throw all its help to Chen to outpoll Fu, the local political boss who claims he alone represents the true Kuomintang.

“All the people of Hualien know that I am the only true 'blue-blooded' Kuomintang candidate,” said Fu, a three-term veteran in the nation's highest legislative organ.

That's why the people of Hualien returned him again and again to the Legislative Yuan, he said. “They will make me magistrate,” he pointed out with confidence.

He may be overconfident. With the full support of Hsieh and the opposition party, Chen may defeat Fu, as the Kuomintang's voter support is split three ways.

Though a weak candidate, Tu is fully supported by the ruling party. She may garner enough votes to make Fu's bid go down the drain.

The Kuomintang also has to nominate a candidate for magistrate of Yunlin, after its nominee Chang Li-shan withdrew from the race at the eleventh hour last week.

Indications are that the Kuomintang will pick Hsieh Shu-ya, a former chief of Kukeng Township, to run against incumbent magistrate Su Chih-fen of Yunlin.

Chan Chun-po, Kuomintang secretary-general, was tight-lipped on the selection of the nominee, but party sources said a straw poll shows Hsieh may edge Su in the December 5 election.

Five hopefuls took part in the Kuomintang poll, whose outcome was not made public. Hsieh won the poll handily, party sources said.

Pitted against Su, the poll shows, Hsieh would win, though within a margin of error, Kuomintang sources said.

The ruling party has to announce her candidacy in a couple of days so that she may have carry out her registration with the election commission before the deadline.

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