Taiwan election wild card Ko Wen-je insists top priority is winning seats in legislature – not presidential vote
- Taipei mayor says main target for newly formed Taiwanese People’s Party will be parliamentary election to be held on same day as presidential election
- Polls suggest Ko could pose major challenge to President Tsai Ing-wen, but he remains non-committal about whether he will seek the top job
Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je said on Thursday that the top priority for his new Taiwanese People’s Party was winning seats in the legislature, but he kept his options open about challenging President Tsai Ing-wen for the island’s top job.
“It is not the main point whether I run for president or not,” Ko said, adding that “our target” was to secure representation in parliament.
The latest opinion polls in Taiwan have shown that the popular mayor would pose a major challenge to Tsai if he decided to contest January’s presidential election.
But Ko refused to be pinned down about a run for the presidency, preferring to focus on the chances of his new party – which will be formally established next week – gaining seats in the legislature.
“The [formation] of the party is to allow voters to have another choice rather than just the pan-blue and pan-green camps,” Ko said, referring to the mainland-friendly opposition Kuomintang and Tsai’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.
