Vice President Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) announcement on Tuesday that he would not pair up with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in next year’s presidential election marked an end to a five-month-long “perilous, yet silent race” between Siew and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), a local newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying.
While Siew’s announcement seemingly came as a surprise, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) sources said Siew had already informed his friends in the party of his decision last week, according to the Chinese-language United Daily News.
The newspaper quoted party sources familiar with the undeclared race between Siew and Wu for a spot on the KMT ticket as saying that Wu has had the upper hand since the five special municipality mayoral elections in November last year, in which the KMT maintained its hold on three cities.
Photo: CNA
The momentum behind Wu’s bid began to build after the Lunar New Year in early February, sources said, adding that Wu’s competitive edge became even more evident in March when Siew’s reputation was hurt by flaws in identifying Council of Grand Justice nominees.
In April, Siew told his friends that Ma had not yet talked to him about running again next year. A seasoned politician, Siew was fully aware of the implication of Ma’s reticence on the subject.
Siew took the initiative to bring up the issue with Ma in late April. After extensive talks, Ma arranged for Siew to visit two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Latin America — Paraguay and Panama — as his “graduation trip.”
To show his respect for Siew, Ma is not expected to announce his running mate any time soon.
“Ma may wait until after the Legislative Yuan recesses in mid-June to announce who will join him on the KMT presidential ticket,” a KMT official said on condition of anonymity.
Another source said Ma is likely to unveil his running mate a week before the KMT holds its national congress on June 25.
Since the beginning of the year, KMT sources said, Wu has announced a series of policy -measures aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public. In addition, the sources said, Wu has taken a number of steps to convince Ma that having an incumbent premier as his running mate is an effective strategy for him to win re-election.
“Wu has painted a rainbow in the sky to show the decision-maker [Ma] its glamour and appeal,” a KMT source said.
According to the results of a series of KMT polls, a Ma-Wu ticket could beat the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) team led by DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by 5 or 6 percent, or about 700,000 to 800,000 votes.
Given such a tight race, KMT campaign strategists believe that the Ma-Wu team should collaborate with KMT legislative candidates to present a unified and consolidated platform and gain leverage in the next presidential and legislative elections that are scheduled to be held simultaneously on Jan.
Siew, 72, entered public service as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs staffer after graduating from National Chengchi University’s Department of Diplomacy and worked his way up to become premier.
During his career in public office, Siew has held senior posts in diplomatic affairs, international trade, economic planning and Chinese affairs and he also once served as a lawmaker.
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