Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) Vice President Wu Den-yih became the acting chairman of the ruling party Wednesday, when the Kuomintang (KMT) Central Standing Committee unanimously approved his interim succession of the post following President Ma Ying-jeou's resignation as party chief earlier in the day.
Ma left the committee meeting after making a short speech and officially resigning, his way of taking responsibility for the KMT's trouncing in last weekend's election, where the party only managed to win five of 22 city and county leadership posts.
Wu is one of the KMT's vice chairpersons. Two other vice chairmen, New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu, who was reelected Saturday, and outgoing Taichung Mayor Jason Hu did not attend the committee meeting.
The vice president of the nation will now serve as acting chairman until next month, when the KMT plans to hold an election to install a new party leader.
In its meeting, the Central Standing Committee also unanimously approved a proposal for Hung Hsiu-chu, another KMT vice chairperson and the deputy speaker of the Legislature, to serve as acting secretary-general of the party until a new one is appointed.
Former Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan, who is still a vice chair of the KMT, resigned Saturday as the crushing defeat at the polls was becoming apparent. Outgoing Premier Jiang Yi-huah offered his resignation at the same time.
(By Claudia Liu, S.C. Chang and Kuo Chung-han)
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