Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Tuesday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of issuing an ultimatum, after its candidate, Hou You-yi (侯友宜), requested a response by Wednesday on his proposal to use both a primary and polling to decide who should take top billing on the ballot in January.
The KMT has suggested using a primary to decide who should run as president and who should take second billing as vice president on a united opposition ballot, while the TPP supports using polling.
The New Taipei City mayor in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), China Times and United Daily News on Monday suggested compromising by giving equal weighting to each method.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Hou’s campaign office had previously said it plans to conduct a primary on Nov. 4.
As the preparation would take about 10 days, Hou said he hopes for a response from Ko by Wednesday.
Ko held a news conference in the afternoon to respond to the proposal, in which he blasted the rushed timeline.
Giving only one day to respond is like a “forced marriage,” he said, accusing the KMT of pushing around the smaller TPP.
“The ballots have even been printed already, leaving us no choice,” Ko said, referring to the sample primary ballots presented by Hou in the interview.
Hou’s office said that Hou and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to hold a news conference at 5pm to respond.
Also in the joint interview on Monday, Hou for the first time ceded ground to Ko, saying that he did not dismiss the possibility of running for vice president as long as both their names appear on the ballot.
"For the KMT-TPP alliance to be completed and achieve a transition of power, the names of both individuals [his and Ko's] must be on the same ballot," Hou said.
Presidential candidates must formally register their candidacies between Nov. 20 and 24, setting a deadline for the two opposition parties to decide on how they are to collaborate.
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