KMT presidential hopeful not worried about tough primary threshold

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/23
By: Chen Wei-ting, Kelven Huang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 23 (CNA) Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said Saturday that she is not worried about a rule in the Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential primary procedures aimed at keeping people of lesser stature from representing the party in the 2016 election.

Hung said she will do her best in seeking a breakthrough in support and indicated she was not worried about the requirement that a candidate must receive a support rating of higher than 30 percent to be nominated.

Hung and former Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) are the only two people who submitted petitions of support from KMT members by the May 18 deadline to be able to compete in the party’s presidential primary.

KMT heavyweights often mentioned as potential candidates — KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — are conspicuously absent from the primary.     [FULL  STORY]