Taipei, Dec. 2 (CNA) Ruling Kuomintang (KMT) sources said late Tuesday that Vice President Wu Den-yih, who is also a KMT vice chairman, will stand in as acting chairman until next month, when the party will hold an election for the top post vacated by President Ma Ying-jeou.

Earlier in the day, Ma announced his plan to step down the following day as KMT chairman to take responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in a national poll for local government heads and council members over the weekend.

The party's secretary-general post will be taken over temporarily by Hung Hsiu-chu, the incumbent deputy speaker of the Legislature, following the resignation of Tseng Yung-chuan, the sources said.

Ma, who is president of the country, will appoint a new premier "as soon as possible" following the resignation of Premier Jiang Yi-huah on Saturday. The Cabinet resigned en masse Monday.

Under the KMT charter, a chairman election needs to be held within three months, but the party has accelerated the process to just two months.

(By Lee Shu-hua, Laudia Liu and S.C. Chang)
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