Hung Hsiu-chu toppled in party coup:
“Some have said that this [emergency] party congress is being held to replace me, but I do not agree. I think, this party congress is being held so that I can seek support among the delegates” to remain as the KMT presidential candidate, Hung said. [Emphasis added]
Obtuse to the very end. 812 out of 891 Kuomingtang delegates voted to strip her of the party’s nomination for president…so maybe the party congress was ENTIRELY about replacing her.
(Curiously, 1,607 delegates were supposed to be present, but only 55% of them stayed to vote. Where were the other 45%? Unwilling to antagonize Hung’s supporters? Squeamish about being perceived as railroading her?)
Regarding that last point:
Apparently, the KMT has a rule requiring two months’ notice before holding an ex tempore congress such as was held today. Rule broken. RAILROAD.
According to one of Hung’s supporters, the KMT has a rule stating that once its nominee has been selected, she can only be removed if “she has committed a crime or issued bribes”. Rule broken. RAILROAD.
And finally, a proposal to have the vote conducted by secret ballot was shot down by the KMT with an unconvincing excuse. Clap yo’ hands, everybody. ALL ABOARD!
(The KMT’s new nominee for president, Chairman Eric Chu.)
What Hung never understood was that she was nominated as a placeholder. A seat warmer. Or, in the military parlance which she enjoys, a soldier who charges up the impregnable hill only to die an honorable death while waving the party flag.
Definitely NOT someone with a mandate to make innovations to KMT unification policy.
Despite all the (well-deserved) ridicule leveled at her on this blog, I for one shall miss Hung Hsiu-chu. For she offered voters a real choice. An unpalatable one, but a choice just the same. And she had the honesty to attempt openly what most KMT politicians would rather do by stealth.
UPDATE (Oct 18 / 2015): More on the death throes of Hung Hsiu-chu’s campaign:
- Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch
- Hung Hsiu-chu Campaign Death Watch: Give Me 20 cc’s Of Alarmism, Stat!
- Is The KMT’s Party Coup Against Its Presidential Nominee “Fair”?
- “Little Hot Pepper” Gives KMT Indigestion (Hung Hsiu-chu finally stripped of KMT’s nomination)
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