KMT Press Release: Party Charter Revisions in Line with the Election and Recall Act: Nothing Wrong

KMT Press Release

Party Charter Revisions in Line with the Election and Recall Act: Nothing Wrong

KMT Culture and Communications Committee
June 27, 2007


According to a media report, DPP Presidential candidate Frank Hsieh called the KMT’s revision to Article 43 of its Charter allowing party members to run for public offices on party tickets unless they are convicted on final appeal shameful. In response, the KMT Headquarters said that the revision was passed by the KMT National Congress in order to emulate the spirit of “anyone who is convicted on final appeal by courts may not run for election” stipulated in the “Election and Recall for Public Officials Act,” whose passage in Parliament was shepherded by the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) and the Ministry of Interior. If it were shameful, then the DPP itself would be a big problem.

KMT Headquarters stressed that a simple comparison between the Election and Recall Act and the KMT Charter revision shows that the standards of the KMT revision are much higher than the Act. Apart from the clause stating that “party members convicted on final appeal shall be deprived of the right to participate in party primaries or to be nominated by the Party to run on party tickets for public offices,” a proviso specifically stipulates that if a party member’s conduct is confirmed by either the KMT’s Clean Government Committee or Central Discipline Committee of the Party as being “harmful to social justice and to the reputation of the Party, he/she shall be deprived of the right to participate in party primaries or to be nominated by the Party to run on party tickets for public offices.”

Frank Hsieh criticized the KMT for attacking indictment of the First Lady Wu Shu-jen over the state affairs fund case while upholding a double standard over Ma Ying-jeou’s discretionary fund trial. This was a shame, he said. KMT Headquarters replied that Wu Shu-jen played sick each time to avoid attending trial, but Ma Ying-jeou dutifully attended trial. Who is the shameful one? However, the KMT could not agree more with Frank Hsieh’s words, “Judge a person not on his daily utterances, but whether he can let go of his burdens and interests in critical moments.” The KMT suggested Frank Hsieh to read these words loud enough in front of President Chen Shui-bian.

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