TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has distanced himself from the idea of collaborating with the Kuomintang’s (KMT) candidate.
When asked about the possibility of a KMT-TPP collaboration on Thursday (Sept. 28), Ko said he understood the KMT did not want to use polling to decide who would lead the presidential ticket, and would not accept an outside-party candidate for the role. Ko called these conditions “quite strange,” per BCC News.
Both the KMT’s Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) and the TPP’s Ko have placed removing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from power at the center of their presidential campaigns. However, Ko has consistently polled higher than Hou despite representing a minor party.
Ko said that cooperation between two political parties at the very least requires shared values and ideas. However, Ko said that if two parties are in complete agreement on everything, then they should just combine into one party.
Reducing cooperation to a simple distribution of power will not capture the hearts and minds of the people, he said. In the end, two candidates together may produce less results than the sum of their parts, Ko said.
According to a poll released on Tuesday, DPP candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) is leading the presidential race, with Ko in second, and Hou in third. Independent candidate and Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) is trailing in fourth, though Gou recently said he would collaborate with the KMT if possible.
