Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday said that he would probably not attend the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) news event to unveil the results of its presidential primary poll today.
He has already made plans and “will mostly likely not attend,” he told reporters in Taipei before going on a canvassing tour.
If he could not attend, he would arrange a representative to be there on his behalf, he added.
Asked if he would still run for president if he loses the primary, Gou said he would work hard in the primary until the last second.
“Everything will be decided after the poll results are announced,” he said.
He would answer related questions in the afternoon following the KMT’s announcement, he added.
Asked who he would be open to partnering with in his presidential bid, Gou said the person should identify with “the Republic of China in Taiwan.”
Winning the election is the most important thing, he added.
Meanwhile, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) called on party members to rally behind the primary winner.
“The biggest variable in next year’s election will be whether the KMT can make its members work toward the same goal,” he told reporters during a visit to his hometown, Taoyuan.
He is doing his best to win the primary, but would support whoever wins it, Chu said.
While he would not attend the KMT’s news conference in the morning, he would hold his own at noon to share his feelings and thoughts regarding the primary, he said.
Asked to comment on the rumor that Gou could run as an independent, Chu said: “I believe that is just a rumor and I hope we can all work as a team, starting from tomorrow.”
KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) last week instructed the party’s Organizational Development Committee to invite all five candidates in the primary to show solidarity by attending the unveiling of the poll results, amid rising speculation that Gou could run for president as a independent if he loses the primary.
So far, only Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) have agreed to attend.
Wu said he would not speculate about how the KMT would ensure party unity following the primary or whether Gou would still run for president if he loses.
Asked about a proposal to remove a clause in the party charter requiring the member serving as president to double as its chairman, Wu said it was not his idea.
“I was not involved,” he said, adding that it was brought up in a meeting, because many party members had suggested it.
The KMT plans to announce the results of its presidential primary poll at 11am today, the party’s Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Cheng Mei-hua (程美華) said.
At 8am, the party would begin work to unseal and upload poll samples collected in the past week into a computer system for data aggregation, she said.
The uploading process and announcement of poll results would be livestreamed on the KMT’s official Facebook account, she said.
Additional reporting by Lin Liang-sheng
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