Former Chinese pro-democracy dissident Wuer Kaixi yesterday announced in a surprise move that he is dropping his bid to win a seat in the legislature through the Greater Taichung by-election, but planned to run in the 2016 legislative elections.
The by-election was made necessary after the legislative seat held by Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) was vacated after Lin resigned just days before the election on Nov. 29.
He won the election and was sworn in as mayor on Thursday.
Wuer Kaixi announced his by-election bid on Dec. 1.
A leader in China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, Wuer Kaixi, 46, said in a statement on Facebook that he decided to withdraw from the by-election after discussing it with his campaign team.
He said he wanted to run because he could contribute to dealing with what he sees as the biggest challenges facing the nation — deepening democracy and cross-strait ties.
However, he felt the short campaigning time for the by-election and the short time in office he would have before the next elections if he were to win would not give him enough time to realize his goals, he said in the post.
He therefore changed his mind and decided to run for a legislative seat in the 2016 elections, which would give him a four-year term if elected, he said.
On the issue of democracy, he said he supports an expansion of civil participation that would allow civic groups to thrive.
As for cross-strait relations, he advocated facing up to problems and encouraging discussion within Taiwan, across the Strait and in the international community.
“My special background may make special contributions on the issue,” he said.
On whether voters can accept him, Wuer Kaixi said earlier this month that he has had a Taiwan ID card for 15 years and has never had doubts about being accepted.
In addition to being an exiled dissident who has been accepted by Taiwan, he is the father of two children born here, he works and pays taxes here, and he has donated blood 50 times, he said.
After the bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Beijing, Wuer Kaixi went into exile in the US, where he met his Taiwanese wife, Chen Hui-ling (陳慧玲), who was studying there.
He now lives in Greater Taichung, a special municipality with eight single-seat districts.
Lin became the legislator representing the sixth district in 2012 with 96,685 votes, or 51.78 percent.
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