The KMT Party List Is an Insult to the Taiwanese Public

The KMT's party list nominations for 2020 election are godawful and embarrassing.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/11/14
By: Louis Lo

The Kuomintang (KMT) announced its party list nominees yesterday, with quite a few surprises. If we examine the nominations closely, we can find endless flaws.

I’m not going to focus on how the list borders on a communist representation, but only on how poorly constructed it is.

A party list can be split into three categories with different purposes:

1. Safe seats: To appease local factions, build momentum for the party, and reward people who have done favors for the party.
2. Marginal seats: To include influential faction members and quality candidates who appeal to the voters.
3. Promotional seats: To give new candidates more exposure.

In the recently revealed KMT party list, most of the nominees were only rewarded a seat because of political favors. Within the marginal seats, the only powerful faction member is Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) from the Chiayi county; and the only nominee who can appeal to voters is perhaps Hsieh Lung-jie (謝龍介), who can recite the Analects in fluent Taiwanese-Hokkien. In other words, the KMT party-list contains only about 10 to 12 safe seats.    [FULL  STORY]