Taiwan opposition’s joint bid for presidency in disarray

TAIPEI –

A potential joint bid for Taiwan’s presidency

by the island’s two main opposition parties was in disarray on Nov 18 after the smaller of the two said no consensus had been reached on how to use opinion polls to make that decision.

The issue of China, which views Taiwan as its territory, looms over the Jan 13, 2024, parliamentary and presidential elections. China

has stepped up military and political pressure,

including high-profile war games, to press the island to accept its sovereignty claim, which Taiwan rejects.

After weeks of sometimes acrimonious talks on joining up for the presidential election, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the much smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) agreed on Nov 15 to look at an aggregate of opinion polls to decide which party’s candidate would run as president and which as vice-president.

But both parties failed to reach agreement on how to interpret opinion polls and thus decide who will stand for what position by an originally scheduled deadline of Nov 18. Candidates have to register with the Election Commission by Nov 24.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, Vice-President William Lai Ching-te, has for months led most opinion polls to be Taiwan’s next president, leaving the KMT’s Hou Yu-ih and the TPP’s Ko Wen-je to battle it out for second place.

China detests Mr Lai, regarding him as a separatist, and has rebuffed repeated calls from him for talks. Mr Hou especially has vowed to renew dialogue with Beijing, and says Mr Lai is a dangerous supporter of Taiwan independence.

Some opinion polls have shown that if Mr Hou and Mr Ko teamed up, in whatever combination, they would beat Mr Lai and his presumptive running mate,

Ms Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s envoy to the United States.

Former Taipei mayor Ko, who has previously said the things he hates most are “mosquitoes, cockroaches and the KMT”, said when asked by reporters whether talks had now broken down that anything was possible before Nov 24, but he could not be expected to “surrender” to the KMT on the polls issue.

“We hope we can continue to consult with the KMT,” he said.

Both parties insist their reading of the polls is the correct one, with the KMT’s showing that if Mr Hou was the presidential candidate, then the joint team with Mr Ko as running mate would beat Mr Lai, which is not what the TPP’s shows.

KMT chairman Eric Chu, speaking at a separate news conference, said cooperation remained the aim, but did not indicate he would back down on the polls issue.

“We hope to reach consensus as soon as possible,” he said.

The DPP, which will on Nov 20 announce Ms Hsiao as Mr Lai’s running mate and champions Taiwan’s separate identity from China, says only China stands to gain from the opposition getting together.

Speaking at a Lai campaign event in the southern city of Chiayi on Nov 18, President Tsai Ing-wen said that the opposition sought merely to split the spoils of power and their teaming up augured chaos.

“If the two political parties do not have a common philosophy, the operation of the government will suffer from internal friction and will not be able to gain international trust,” she said.

News of the KMT and TPP’s progress on a joint presidential bid has pushed the Taiwan dollar to its strongest weekly rally in a year on expectations of an easing of Taiwan-China tensions if they win. REUTERS