Update | Taiwan court upholds ruling against Ma’s bid to expel speaker Wang Jin-pyng
Ruling upholds lower court’s freezing of move to oust Wang Jin-pyng as legislative chief, in fresh blow to party’s leader, Ma Ying-jeou
Kuomintang leader and Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou's bid to oust his rival Wang Jin-pyng as speaker of the island's legislature has failed again, with the high court yesterday upholding a lower court's decision to allow Wang to stay put for now.
The decision deals a further blow to Ma, whose feud with Wang has triggered Taiwan's biggest political crisis since Ma became president in 2008.
The Taiwan High Court rejected an appeal by Ma's Kuomintang party against a court's decision on September 13 to grant Wang's request for a provisional injunction against the KMT's decision to revoke his party membership.
"The [revocation] would result in irreparable damage to [Wang] if in the future the decision was found unreasonable but he had already lost his post," said Hung Kuang-tsan, spokesman for the high court.
Grafie Li, a presidential office spokeswoman, said Ma would respect the ruling but would not compromise on the decision to revoke Wang's KMT membership, the Central News Agency reported.
KMT lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court, but a group of KMT legislators led by Lo Shu-lei called on Ma to halt the appeal, saying he should focus instead on the island's sagging economy.
"Heed the voice of the cab driver who committed suicide," said Lo, referring to a suicide note left by a driver who killed himself out of anger over the fight between Ma and Wang and the failure of the Ma government to improve the island's economy.