/ 23 January 2006

One wedding banquet, 20 000 guests

An independent Taiwanese parliamentarian has displayed his political clout by hosting 20 000 people at a wedding banquet for his son.

Well-wishers on Saturday jammed a stadium in the coastal town of Shalu that was turned into a makeshift restaurant by legislator Yen Ching-piao.

Newspapers and television stations said 1 980 tables had an average 10 guests for each table and an extra 20 tables had to be set up elsewhere.

Among the guests at the wedding of the MP’s son, 17-year-old Yen Chia-yi, were Ma Ying-jeou, chairperson of the leading opposition Kuomintang party; Ma’s predecessor, Lien Chan; parliament Speaker Wang Jin-pyng; and James Soong, chief of another opposition party, the People First Party.

Dozens of other parliamentarians from both ruling and opposition parties and diplomats were also among those at the event.

The banquet broke a record set in 2004 by another legislator in a wedding for his daughter. — AFP