Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Minister Kao Su-po (高思博) will be leaving the Cabinet amid allegations that he was reluctant to run for a legislative seat in the pan-green stronghold of Greater Tainan.
Speaking by telephone, Kao said Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who had asked to talk to him on Monday, had requested that he step down.
Kao is the second Cabinet member to submit his resignation this month, following National Youth Commission Minister Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) who resigned on Jan. 17, after outgoing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) claimed she had refused to run for the same seat in the March 5 by-election.
After failing to convince Wang or Kao to run in the by-election, the KMT nominated Legislator-at-Large Chen Shu-huei (陳淑慧) to face the Democratic Progressive Party’s Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), the former Tainan mayor.
“Premier Wu expressed his wish that I step down, at a time when he is set to reshuffle the Cabinet. My superior wants those adjustments, so I had to listen,” Kao said.
A former legislator from Tainan, Kao said that while he had not decided whether to run in the legislative elections at the end of this year or early next year, he would campaign for Chen this year.
Kao said “it’s too early” to talk about the next legislative election before the by-election is held.
“If Chen loses the election, the KMT has to nominate another candidate, but if she wins, she should be the one to run in the next election,” Kao said.
Kao also doubles as a minister without portfolio.
Asked for comment on Kao’s decision, Wu said he respected Kao’s choice, adding that some people were hoping he would run again for a legislative seat.
Kao’s father, Kao Yu-jen (高育仁), said his son had decided to leave the Cabinet without complaint and that his family would do its best to campaign for Chen in the by-election.
The senior Kao, a former KMT lawmaker, said he told his son to make his own choices and not to let the party decide his future.
Kao Yu-jen said the KMT had no plan to cultivate young people like his son and lacked a strategy for building the party’s force in southern constituencies.
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