BEIJING, July 14 -- Taiwan's largest opposition Party, the Kuomintang (KMT) or the Nationlists, is expected to elect a new leader on Saturday, three months after reconciling with China's Communist Party (CPC).

    The two leading candidates both favor closer ties with China¡¯s mainland, and have vowed to follow the trail led by incumbent chairman Lien Chan, who ended decades of hostility with a historic trip to Beijing in April.

    Opinion polls show Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, born in Hong Kong, leading parliament speaker Wang Jin-pyng in the unprecedented, two-way race for the 110-year-old party that was founded by Chinese revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

    But local-born Wang could still swing the outcome if he can mobilize traditional grassroots support, Reuters reported.

    The KMT, who once ruled all of China, fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war in 1945-49 and enjoyed uninterrupted rule of the island until 2000 when they lost to the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

    KMT leaders are traditionally the party's standard bearers for island elections. Incumbent chairman Lien Chan ran for office in 2000 and 2004, losing both times to Chen Shui-bian of the DPP. He has since decided to stand down.

    The KMT only introduced direct chairmanship elections after losing its grip on the Taiwan ¡°presidency¡± in 2000. Saturday will be the first time rank-and-file members have faced a choice.

    On the all-important issue of how Taipei should deal with China¡¯s mainland, Ma and Wang have both ruled out independence and pledged to follow the footsteps of Lien, who shook hands with President Hu Jintao on his visit to Beijing in April.

    Many in the mainland hailed the historical home-coming trip headed by Lien, and pinned hope on an eventual peaceful reunion of Taiwan and the mainland.

    "It looks like Ma has a better chance of winning," said Emile Sheng, a political scientist at Soochow University.

    With handsome, squeaky-clean looks and a Harvard law degree, the 55-year-old mayor enjoys high popularity in northern Taipei. Dubbed "Little Brother Ma" by his supporters, many see the mayor as the opposition's best, and perhaps only, hope of wresting power back from the DPP in 2008.

    "Choose a right chairman in 2005, than the KMT will definitely win in 2008," read one of Ma's campaign ads. But critics say Ma lacks backing in rural areas, especially in the island's south, where support for a local Taiwan identity runs high. Ma is also relatively junior in a party filled with elders like Wang, who is 64.

    Ma, whose mother tongue is Mandarin, speaks fluent English. He speaks the local Taiwanese dialect with a heavy accent.

    Wang, on the other hand, enjoys a strong following in the south and carries significant political clout as head of the local Taiwan parliament, called the the Legislative Yuan.

    "We are not voting for the leading actor of a soap opera, we are voting for a chairman who can unite the opposition camp," Ju Gau-jeng, one of Wang's supporters, wrote in a open letter.

    "The KMT should learn from its painful lessons in the past. It should nominate local Taiwanese as candidates for the 2008 vote in order to win."

    (Source: China Daily/Agencies)