'Lame duck' Ma Ying-jeou's likely exit 'to set off KMT power struggle'

Taiwan's Kuomintang is expected to plunge into intense infighting with yesterday's mass cabinet exits and the likely resignation of its chairman, Ma Ying-jeou.

Premier Dr Jiang Yi-huah and 81 members of his cabinet resigned in the aftermath of the KMT's disastrous showing in the weekend's local polls. The cabinet members will stay on until another premier is sworn in and picks a new team.

The office of Vice-President Wu Den-yih said Wu also resigned as the party's first vice-chairman, a move observers said could spare him from becoming a direct target of party strife.

"The [resignation] could also temporarily ease the expected fierce infighting because Wu, who is one of the KMT hopefuls for the 2016 presidential election, would not be directly involved in the fight," said George Tsai Wei, a political science professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

Wu is expected to be acting chairman before a new leader is elected within three months.

Ma apologised to the public and the party for Saturday's massive electoral defeat but did not say whether he would quit as KMT chairman.

The KMT was only able to hold on to six cities and counties in the elections, less than half of the 15 it held before the vote.

Analysts said the defeat left Ma a lame duck and his resignation as chairman would inevitably ignite fierce power struggles within the party.

Chu, who was the only municipal mayor from the KMT to win re-election, asked voters to give the KMT a chance, saying the party was "willing to reexamine and reform itself to meet the expectations of the public".

"What the KMT should do now is look at how it can completely reform itself … to give the new generation hope," he said.

Asked if he would run for the KMT chairmanship, Chu said: "I will not evade my responsibility to make the KMT a good party."

Chu was seen as a possible KMT hopeful for the 2016 presidential election, but his chances dimmed with his narrow win at the weekend - he had been expected to win a landslide against Democratic Progressive Party challenger and former premier Yu Shyi-kun.

KMT legislators were also at odds yesterday over who should be the new premier, with Lee Ching-hua seeking party members' endorsement for central bank governor Perng Fai-nan, and Lu Shiow-yen calling former legislator Jaw Shaw-kong to be the next cabinet head.

Observers said that as party chairman Ma had the final say over who from the KMT would run for public office. But his resignation would mean he would no longer be able to use that power to keep unruly KMT members in check.

"If [Ma] resigns, it will mean the ousting of the KMT from the presidential race even before 2016," the outgoing mayor of Taichung, Jason Hu Chih-chiang, warned.

He said Ma should stay on as chairman temporarily until it was decided who should represent the KMT to run for president in 2016.