Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he has no interest in running for president in 2020.
Amid speculation that his recent appearances with legislative candidates have been aimed at building influence for the 2020 polls, Ko told reporters that he never intended to throw his hat in the ring.
“I am just focusing on doing my job well,” he said.
Asked whether he would go back on his word, as campaigning New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) — who on 24 occasions said that he would “serve out his term” — has done, Ko said: “No.”
Ko was equally dismissive to reporters who asked if he had ruled out the possibility of a 2020 run to avoid going up against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), should she win election next month and then seek re-election four years later.
“It is not even 2016 yet and you are already asking me about 2020. Give me a break,” he said.
He said he would worry about whether to run for re-election as mayor in 2017.
As for the analogy he made during a recent interview that the current rivalry between the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was a “war between mammals and dinosaurs,” Ko said the DPP is closer to mammals because it is “cleverer.”
“The DPP knows how to tap into parties across the political spectrum to avoid direct conflict between the pan-green and pan-blue camps. However, the KMT has not proposed such strategies in southern Taiwan,” he said.
Asked about his wife Peggy Chen’s (陳佩琪) remark that the KMT’s plan to ask “celebrity wives” to help salvage its campaign would be “futile,” since otherwise “Ko would not be mayor,” Ko said: “I am too afraid to comment on my wife’s remarks. I respect everything she says.”
Chen was referring to KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) wife, Patty Tsai (蔡依珊), who often appeared with Lien during the campaign for the nine-in-one elections in November last year.
The KMT has said it would ask Chu’s wife, Kao Wan-chien (高婉倩); President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) wife, Chou Mei-ching (周美青); and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Shiu-chu (洪秀柱), its former presidential candidate, to attend campaign events.
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