Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that if everything goes well and he remains healthy, he plans to run for president in 2024.
Ko made the remark while being interviewed on an online political talk show at noon.
Ko’s remarks came after his close aide, former Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如), on Tuesday during another interview said that Ko is likely to run for president in 2024.
Photo: screen grab from YouTube
Asked to comment about concerns from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) supporters that if Ko runs for president in 2024, it might affect Gou’s chances of being elected if he decided to run, Ko said: “Do not worry about four years from now. We do and prepare what we should, and that is enough.”
The talk show host asked Ko if he agreed with media personality Huang Wei-han’s (黃暐瀚) opinion that a determining factor in Jan. 11’s presidential election results would be who the approximately 580,000 people that voted for Ko in the mayoral election last year decide to vote for.
Ko said that political supporters do not necessarily support a politician all the way, because if so, the Taiwan People’s Party that he founded would have gained a support rate of about 20 to 25 percent.
In the interview, Ko was asked why he decided not to run in this presidential election, as he had been viewed as a strong contender.
He said that one of his concerns was that if he ran for president and won, but had no legislators on his side, it would be difficult to operate the government.
There are still many ongoing projects in Taipei that he should deal with, Ko said, adding that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, has taken leave to run for president, which has caused the city’s municipal administration to stall.
“It would be better to focus on running for president after leaving the post [of mayor], or else one could fall between two stools,” Ko said.
The host asked if Ko meant he would run for president in 2024.
“If everything goes well, I will run [for president],” he said, adding that he would gradually prepare for that goal.
Ko said that his health would have to be good, because he was the director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s surgical intensive care unit for 17 years and believes that “man proposes, god disposes.”
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