Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday urged Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) to sign a contract pledging that he will not run for president if he loses the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) primary.
Chu said that he has signed the contract and delivered it to KMT headquarters. Chu is competing against Gou, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) for the party’s nomination for next year’s presidential election.
“Chairman Gou has not signed it, so I urge him to sign it soon,” Chu said, referring to Gou’s previous title as Hon Hai chairman.
Photo: CNA
Chu also rejected Gou’s proposal to have all KMT presidential candidates sign the contract on stage on Sunday at a rally against the amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法). As the other candidates have already signed the contract, it would be inappropriate to turn the event into a rally for certain hopefuls, Chu said.
No candidate should have privileges or think about breaching party rules, regardless of whether they have signed the document, he added.
Earlier yesterday, Gou said that Chu and Han did not sign the contract.
When KMT Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) last month asked the candidates to sign the contract, he asked Tseng if it had to be signed immediately, Gou told reporters in Taipei.
Tseng told him that he did not need to sign it immediately and that he could take the document with him to read first, Gou said.
“I clearly saw [former KMT legislator] Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) signing the pledge on behalf of Han and [former KMT legislator] Kao Su-po (高思博) signing it on behalf of Chu,” he said.
Chou and Chang are the only ones who signed their contracts in person, Gou said.
Tseng also did not agree to his proposal that the candidates sign the contract at the rally, Gou said.
“All of this is true. You can confirm with Tseng,” Gou said.
“The KMT should explain this or it would be doing injustice to me, as people accuse me of not signing the contract,” he added.
Asked if he would run for president if he loses the primary, Gou said he hopes the candidates will sign their contracts themselves.
The KMT should ensure that party members work together to secure victory for the party in next year’s elections, but it is not taking the necessary actions, Gou said.
He initially had a better chance of winning the primary, but is now in a precarious situation due to the Democratic Progressive Party’s “manipulations,” he said.
The manipulations are unfair for him and Taiwan, Gou said, adding that the KMT should try to stop the interference.
Shortly after Gou made the remarks, KMT headquarters issued a statement saying that Chu, Chou, Chang and Han all signed their contracts in person when they submitted the documents on June 11.
Gou urged the party to show the documents with the signatures on them.
“I asked Tseng about this in person and he never answered me. I will not accept an unclear answer such as this,” Gou said.
He again urged the party to hold an event to have all candidates sign their contracts in public.
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