Kuomintang's candidacy trouble limited to Hualien

Lawmaker Fu Kun-chi, the local political boss in Hualien, completed registration for candidacy yesterday, dashing the ruling party's hope to field only one nominee to win the scenic east Taiwan county.

Registration, which started on Monday, closed yesterday afternoon.

Fu, who is certain to be expelled from the Kuomintang, will face its nominee Tu Li-hua and Hualien lieutenant magistrate Chang Chih-liang, who also bolted the party to run.

The Democratic Progressive Party has refused to field a candidate of its own in Hualien, throwing its full support to Chang, for whom his magistrate Hsieh Shen-shan is electioneering without the approval of the Kuomintang.

A three-way tie has resulted for the Hualien election. The opposition party is working hard to wrest control of Hualien from the Kuomintang.

Hualien is a solid power base for the Kuomintang. The party has never lost control of the county.

Chan Chun-po, Kuomintang secretary-general, threatened to expel any and all Kuomintang leaders who campaign for candidates other than its nominees.

That means Hsieh may be expelled if he openly stumps for his lieutenant magistrate. Hsieh, the outgoing magistrate, is barred from running for a third term.

Voters will go to the polls to elect 17 magistrates and mayors across the country on December 5.

With the all-important local elections less than two months away, the Kuomintang succeeded in fielding only its own nominee in three central and eastern counties.

Chen Chih-pin, a former Kuomintang lawmaker, was persuaded to withdraw from the race. He did not register for candidacy on the last day of registration and declared he would support Lee Chao-chin, magistrate of Nantou, for reelection.

In Yilan, former legislator Cheng Mei-lan was dissuaded from running against Lu Kuo-hua, the incumbent magistrate seeking a second term.

Kuang Lih-chen, incumbent magistrate of Taitung, declared she has withdrawn from the yearend election. She pledged support for Kuomintang nominee Justine Huang.

Previously, Wu Poh-hsiung, the outgoing Kuomintang chairman, had worked out a solution in Taitung which allowed Kuang to divorce her husband to run for Taitung magistrate and win more than two years ago.

Kuang's husband, Wu Chun-li, was magistrate of Taitung for little more than a year when his election was invalidated by allegations of corruption. He then asked his wife to run in the by-election.

To distance herself from a magistrate convicted of corruption, Kuang divorced her husband and ultimately won the by-election.

Speculation is rife that Wu was given assurances by the Kuomintang that he would be the KMT candidate in the legislative by-election to fill the seat vacated by Justine Huang, who is resigning her legislative seat to run for Taitung magistrate.

The alleged Kuomintang promise may have persuaded Kuang to drop her second-term bid.

But the ruling party has no guarantee that it will win the counties contested, except Taitung and Nantou.

Tu will lose the Hualien race. Yilan is likely to be lost, for its incumbent magistrate has been alleged to have accepted bribes in awarding public works contracts.

At any rate, the opposition party has a brighter future in the contested counties, while it certainly can hold on to control of Pingtung, Chiayi, and Yunlin. The counties of Kaohsiung and Tainan are also in the hands of the opposition party.

The county of Kaohsiung will be annexed by the special municipality of Kaohsiung next year. The county and the city of Taichung will merge to comprise a new special municipality on a par with Taipei.

No mayoral elections take place this year in the special municipalities of Kaohsiung and Taipei as well as those to be newly created.

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