Taiwan premier quits as power slips from pro-China party in local poll

AppId is over the quota
By Michael Gold and Faith Hung
TAIPEI Sat Nov 29, 2014 1:55pm EST

1 of 5. Supporters wave flags after Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je won the local elections, in Taipei November 29, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Pichi Chuang
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's China-friendly ruling party lost a slew of traditional strongholds in local elections on Saturday, triggering the resignation of the island's premier and the cabinet.
The worse-than-expected showing underlined the growing unpopularity of the government of President Ma Ying-jeou, which has been trying to forge closer ties with China.
China is Taiwan's largest trading partner, but Beijing has never renounced the use of force to take back what it deems a breakaway province.
The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) shed seats across the island, including in the capital Taipei, where a candidate backed by the pro-independence opposition party was elected as the next mayor, ending the ruling party's 16-year hold on the city.
The local elections, held less than two years ahead of a presidential poll, were the first chance for voters to make their views felt since thousands of young people occupied parliament in March in an unprecedented demonstration against a planned trade pact calling for closer ties with Beijing.
The departure of premier Jiang Yi-huah just hours after polls closed left President Ma, who is also KMT chairman, to rebuild a government.
The cabinet also steps down, as is customary when the premier resigns. A new premier is expected to be announced soon, followed by new ministerial appointments.
In Taipei, independent candidate Ko Wen-je, a 55-year-old surgeon backed by the opposition, pro-independence party, defeated the KMT's Sean Lien, the son of a wealthy and politically connected family.
Every Taiwan president has been a former mayor of Taipei since the island introduced direct presidential elections in
1996.
A crowd of several thousand Ko supporters filled the wide city street outside of his campaign headquarters, with rock music blaring out of loud speakers.
Kuo Hsin-tai, a 40-year-old photocopy shop owner and supporter of Ko, said he had grown disillusioned with the Kuomintang.
"They're making Taiwan far too dependent on the mainland. Their policy-making muscle is far too focused on cross-strait ties and not nearly enough on raising the standard of living of the average Taiwanese person."
Ko told supporters his win symbolized the "desire for progress" among Taipei residents and that the anti-China protests in March that blocked ratification of a pact with China also highlighted the power of "people movements".
A record 11,130 seats were up for grabs in Saturday's election in municipalities, counties, townships and villages nationwide.
The KMT also lost Taichung, in central Taiwan, another of the ruling party's former strongholds.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which is in charge of Taiwan matters for Beijing, said in a statement following the vote that it hoped "cross-strait compatriots" would jointly safeguard the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.
President Ma said the KMT had suffered a serious setback and he apologized to the party. But party spokesman Charles Chen said Ma had no plans to resign as Kuomintang chairman.
Government employee Wang Ling-li, 28, said: "I think Taiwanese people have lost their faith in the KMT in recent years. They've been in power for so long, but the economy is still stagnant. Their dealings with China should take on a much more open form than they have."
(Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in TAIPEI and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Afghan rivals said close to ending feud on how to share power

By Jessica Donati and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:50am EDT

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah (L) talks with a member of his team during a news conference in Kabul September 8, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Mohammad Ismail

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates may reach a deal on how to share power late on Tuesday, according to Afghan and Western officials, potentially ending months of tension over the outcome of a run-off election held in June.

The struggle to find a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has held power since the Islamist Taliban were ousted in 2001, has destabilized Afghanistan and paralyzed its economy just as most foreign troops withdraw.

The rival candidates for the presidency have been negotiating for months on how to share power and the U.S. secretary of state has twice flown in to try to broker a deal.

Abdullah Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban fighter who later served as foreign minister, says the election was rigged against him. His rival, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, denies that.

"If no new issues arise ... it is possible and expected that it could be concluded at the meeting today," Ghani's spokesman, Faizullah Zaki, said of an elusive pact.

A deal between rival camps is widely seen as the best hope for peace after the fraud-marred vote dented confidence in the legitimacy of the process and fueled ethnic and tribal rivalries between the teams.

Preliminary figures indicate that Ghani led the second round by more than a million votes, and the results of a U.N. supervised audit are also expected to show he is the winner, according to officials involved in the process.

Abdullah's team, however, disputes the legitimacy of the process and is calling for political power to be shared. Ghani's camp says everyone should accept the outcome once it is announced.

"The whole process will mean nothing if the results are not accepted," Zaki said. "For the government of national unity to be shared, there must be a legitimately elected and accepted president."

Abdullah's team did not discuss details but said progress had been made the previous day and a clearer picture would emerge later on Tuesday.

TWO POSITIONS

Under the terms of the deal, outlined in an agreement signed during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last month, the winner would become president while a new position of chief executive would go to the losing camp.

But the two sides disagree on how much control the president should share. Abdullah's camp has been pressing for power to be shared equally but Ghani's team says that would create a two-headed government which could create paralysis.

"The constitution says the president is the head of the government," Zaki said, adding that the two teams were close to agreeing on how to "give meaning" to the chief executive's role.

Tension between power-brokers in both camps has stoked ethnic tension and revived fears of another round of civil war, mirroring the conflict that devastated the country through the 1990s and enabled the Taliban to seize control in 1996.

President Hamid Karzai has denied accusations that he has taken advantage of the deadlock to prolong his stay in power and insisted he is looking forward to stepping down.

His spokesman said Monday's breakthrough in talks had taken place during a meeting between the two candidates and the president, who was hopeful a deal would soon be announced.

"Both of the candidates were of the opinion that they made good progress and they are close to finalizing it soon," Aimal Faizi said.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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