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Taiwan election 2024
ChinaDiplomacy

Taiwan elections: KMT-TPP joint presidential ticket talks break down over technicality

  • The TPP’s Ko Wen-je says he can’t agree to the KMT’s calculation to decide who will be the top contender
  • The KMT says the difference is small and the discussions are not dead

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Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je is disputing the method for deciding who will head a joint presidential ticket with the KMT in next year’s election. Photo: CNA
Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Taiwan’s two main opposition parties have failed to agree on a joint ticket in January’s presidential election, with less than a week to go until the deadline for registering candidates.
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The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have until Friday to come up with a joint ticket and their failure to do so in talks on Saturday was a blow to those hoping they will team up to challenge the ruling, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in January.

The KMT and the TPP agreed three days ago to announce on Saturday who would be their presidential candidate and their running mate.

But the two sides baulked at how to interpret an aggregate of opinion polls they previously agreed to use to decide who would top the ticket.

“I merely promised to yield when the margin of error in the polls falls within 3 per cent, but now the KMT asks to calculate both the 3 per cent up and down, meaning altogether 6 per cent,” said Ko Wen-je, the TPP’s chairman and presidential candidate.

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“This is coercion,” Ko said, saying he could not agree to use the method to decide between him and his would-be partner on the ticket, the KMT’s Hou Yu-ih.

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