The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month.
KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking out during a live broadcast. Since then, the two parties’ lawmakers have closely cooperated on nearly all legislative bills and resolutions against the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while pledging cooperation in this year’s and 2028’s elections.
When asked yesterday whether the two parties would also select a joint mayoral candidate for New Taipei City, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who had announced a mayoral run, said he would honor the agreement, with a decision expected by the end of the month.
Huang’s answer drew speculation that he might drop out of the race in exchange for an official post if the KMT wins, as he left his legislator-at-large post in January and his party leadership has been weakened after TPP founding chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) returned on bail. Multiple polls show the KMT’s candidate, former Taipei deputy mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), has more support, while KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) has repeatedly said the KMT must field its own candidate for New Taipei City mayor.
If Huang leaves the race, TPP supporters could face the worst-case scenario — no TPP candidates winning local executive posts this year. Many critics have deemed Chang’s chances in Chiayi City very unlikely, even with KMT support. Hsinchu Mayor and former TPP legislator Ann Kao (高虹安) resigned from the party after being convicted in the first trial of a corruption case in 2024 and is now running for re-election independently.
What looks like a joint win for the blue-white coalition might be a strategic move by the KMT to remove a obstacle to victory and absorb TPP supporter votes, while giving TPP leaders a way out from the party’s expected decline and allowing both sides to avoid blame from supporters.
Ko had a clear view of how his party should secure its position as the “critical minority” — by criticizing both the KMT and DPP to attract attention and support from voters disillusioned with bipartisan politics, while remaining ambiguous about cooperation with either side and threatening to act as a “disrupter” capable of influencing election outcomes.
Ko’s approach was not adopted after he was detained from September 2024 to September last year, as Huang instead worked closely with the KMT in the legislature and used the KMT and TPP’s “shared hatred for the DPP and President William Lai (賴清德),” as well as his claim of “Lai’s political persecution of Ko,” to build support for himself.
The harmonized blue-white coalition continued for a year until Ko was released on bail, after which he criticized the KMT by saying it only rescued its legislators from recall last year because TPP supporters who wanted to “save Ko from jail” helped it. Ko also accused KMT Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of “buying votes with policies” by announcing a free school lunch policy.
However, with Ko sentenced to 17 years in prison and his civil rights suspended for six years on corruption, embezzlement and other charges in the first trial, a split among KMT supporters has emerged.
Some question why the party continues to back a convicted criminal while others argue it must do so for the blue-white coalition to win in the 2026 and 2028 elections — openly implying that “winning” is the only priority above morality, law, justice, national security and public interest.
When a blue-white cooperation is founded on believing Ko’s innocence and shared hatred for the DPP and Lai, but filled with mutual manipulation and shifting principles to accommodate individuals (including the TPP changing its party rules to avoid expelling Ko), rather than a shared vision for a better, sustainable and resilient future for Taiwan, supporters must carefully consider whether their joint candidates can truly serve Taiwanese.
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