If it is true that a house divided against itself cannot stand, as Abraham Lincoln once said, then the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan is in trouble.
The fight for DPP nomination to run for Taiwan's president will start today as the party's popular chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen declares her intention to run in next year's election - days after another DPP stalwart Annette Lu Hsiu-lien announced her candidacy.
When the party was founded in 1987, there were only 1,093 members, according to Lu, former vice-president. By the time party candidate Chen Shui-bian was re-elected president in 2004, the number had soared to 530,975.
But when the Kuomintang re-emerged a landslide victor in both the legislative elections at the end of 2007 and the presidential election in March 2008, which placed Ma Ying-jeou in office, the pro-independence opposition was left reeling. Now, three years later, a battle over the method of choosing candidates for the year-end legislative and next March's presidential election indicates the DPP house is still divided at a time when unity to win in those elections is so important.
Part of the infighting has to do with an issue that any organisation in transition faces: which is better, a return to former ways or an advance towards fresh ideas?
When Lu, 66, declared her candidacy for the DPP's nomination for the presidency on Monday, she did not hide her disapproval of party members who considered her a troublemaker and called for her to hand over the baton of leadership to the younger generation.
'Don't underestimate me,' and 'never assume I would lose,' said Lu, who served as vice-president under Chen from 2000 to 2008.