The Taiwan People’s Party has rejected a proposal from the largest opposition party Kuomintang to restart efforts to form a joint ticket in January’s presidential election.
The two mainland-friendly parties have been deadlocked over the method used to pick a candidate to challenge the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s William Lai Ching-te, and the deadline for registering candidates is looming on Friday.
The two parties had agreed to select the candidate who would top the ticket based on an analysis of opinion polls, but talks broke on Saturday over a disagreement about how to interpret those polls.
On Tuesday, Hou Yu-ih, the KMT’s presidential candidate and New Taipei mayor, proposed that the two sides each appoint their own pollsters to compare the polling, but this was rejected by TPP chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je.
“There was no consensus at that time [Saturday] … and what’s the point of having more talks based on the same issue?” Huang Shan-shan, Ko’s campaign manager, told a news conference on Wednesday.
She said if the two sides were to return to the negotiating table, “the focus would be on the establishment of a fair mechanism that can be accepted by supporters of both sides”.
She said it had long been the TPP position that when challenging the DPP’s candidate, a “stronger team is needed, or it would only end up allowing Lai Ching-te to sit back, relax and win the race”.
Huang did not say who should lead the ticket, but most opinion polls indicate that Ko is at least three points ahead of Hou in terms of public support.
Asked if the talks were dead, Huang said: “We will wait for their response.”
Hou’s campaign office later accused Ko of “breaching the agreement” he signed on Wednesday last week, which said the two sides had agreed to accept the results of the polls, with Ko agreeing to step down if the results were within a three-point margin of error.
“We sincerely hope to resolve our differences … Hou has vowed to wait till the last minute to form the ticket,” Ko Chih-en, a chief campaign aide for Hou, said.
Ex-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou joins push for joint ticket in presidential poll
Ex-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou joins push for joint ticket in presidential poll
The two sides started talks in mid-October, but no progress was made until the former KMT president Ma Ying-jeou offered to act as a witness in last week’s talks between the two sides.
Huang said Ko’s campaign office had already picked up the candidate registration form from the Central Election Commission “as scheduled”.
She repeated Ko’s pledge in a rally outside Taipei on Sunday that he would “continue to fight to the end in his capacity as the TPP presidential candidate”.
Haung also discussed Ko’s three meetings with another candidate, the billionaire Foxconn founder Terry Gou, since talks broke down on Saturday.
“We need to gather as many opposition forces as possible … Gou is an important force in the opposition camp,” she said.
The latest offer from the KMT’s candidate Hou Yu-ih was rebuffed by the smaller party. Photo: Reuters
Gou, who is seeking to run as an independent, is currently trailing the other candidates in the polls. He has gathered enough nominations from voters to register as a candidate with the electoral commission but has yet to complete the process.
Lai, who has named Hsiao Bi-khim, the de facto ambassador to the United States as his running mate, was the first to complete the registration process on Tuesday.
