A joint bid to lead the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by media personality and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) and former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) would receive the highest support among KMT supporters, a survey conducted by the pan-green camp showed yesterday.
Jaw on Monday announced that he had applied to restore his KMT membership and that he did not rule out entering the race for party chairperson.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) on Wednesday said that Jaw’s request to return to the KMT has been approved and that Jaw would be appointed to the party’s Central Advisory Committee after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Photo: Lu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
The survey showed that while the general public preferred former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) as KMT chairman, polling of KMT members showed their preference for Jaw.
However, if Han were to enter the race, but not Jaw, KMT supporters showed a preference for Chu, giving him a lead of 4.3 percentage points over Han, it showed.
If the general public were to choose between Chu, Jaw, Chiang and Sean Lien (連勝文), a former Taipei mayoral candidate and son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), they also preferred Chu, with Chu leading at 41 percent and all other candidates following at less than 20 percent, including Jaw at 18 percent, it showed.
However, self-identified KMT supporters, when asked the same question, gave Jaw the lead at 41.9 percent, followed by Chu at 34.9 percent and Han at 29 percent, the survey showed.
Han’s move to bring back Jaw might be a winning strategy to seize power in the KMT, as this could marginalize Chiang and Lien, pundits said.
However, the survey also showed lower backing for Jaw and Han among younger KMT supporters, those under 40 years old.
Pundits said that the return of Jaw, 70, would not rejuvenate the KMT, although he was once considered the party’s “golden boy" before he left in 1993 to found the New Party.
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