Former Control Yuan president Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) has proposed that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) back Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) as an independent candidate in next year’s presidential election.
In a letter to the Chinese-language China Times that was published yesterday, Wang said that the KMT cannot find a candidate for the presidential election because it has realized it is set to lose by a large margin no matter who represents it.
He suggested that the KMT give up nominating its own candidate and back a successful entrepreneur such as Gou, similar to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) decision to back Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in his campaign for office last year.
The public are “so sick and tired of” Taiwan’s political divide along pan-blue and pan-green lines that they elected Ko despite his lack of government experience, Wang said.
Hon Hai — also known as Foxconn Technology Group — is the world’s largest contract electronics maker, and produces iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc.
KMT Chairman and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that he had not read Wang’s letter, but Taiwan should think about what kind of president it needs rather than worry about who is interested in running.
Chu, who has repeatedly ruled out running for president despite polls indicating he would give DPP Chairperson and the party’s presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) the toughest challenge of any KMT candidate, said his priority was reforming the KMT in the near future and uniting the party’s strength step by step.
Other potential candidates, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), have yet to make their intentions known.
Some of the reluctance to run might be because any KMT candidate would be hampered by the low approval ratings of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and the party’s trouncing in local elections last November.
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