Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday denied that the KMT has demanded that the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) make concessions of any kind regarding the presidential candidate opinion polls.
Chu made the remark after the two parties yesterday failed to agree on who would lead the ticket in a joint presidential bid for January’s elections. Initially, the results of a poll-of-polls regarding a joint KMT-TPP presidential ticket was to be announced at 10am.
The point of contention between the parties is how many of the nine polls are considered valid and what margins of error are to be set for these polls, Chu told a press conference at 11am.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
According to Chu, if all nine polls are taken into consideration, the ratio of support for the KMT’s Hou You-yi (侯友宜) running as the presidential candidate and the TPP’s Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as the running mate would be 8-1.
However, the TPP-nominated polling expert refused to use three of the polls, which put the valid number of polls at six, with the rate of support for a Hou-Ko pairing at 5-1, supporting a Ko-Hou pairing, Chu said.
The TPP-nominated expert also insisted on setting the margin of error at plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, which would put the ratio of support for the Hou-Ko pairing and the Hou-Ko pairing at 3-3, Chu said.
The KMT was of the opinion that all nine polls should be considered valid, Chu said, adding that a poll’s margin of error depends on its collected samples.
If a poll received 1,068 valid responses, the margin of error would be set at plus or minus 3 percentage points, Chu said as an example, adding that if a poll were to have 2,000 valid responses, then its margin of error would be plus or minus 2 percentage points, 3,000 responses at plus or minus 1.74 percentage point, and 4,250 responses at plus or minus 1.5 percentage point.
Chu said he had told Ko on Wednesday that the issue of percentage points should be set aside, and that if a poll fell within the margin of error, it would be considered a vote for the Hou-Ko pairing.
Ko himself had said that if the polls were within the margin of error, he would willingly accept running as the vice presidential candidate, Chu added.
Chu urged both sides to meet as soon as possible to settle this “minor dispute” and focus on winning the election.
Chu did not directly respond to the media’s questions about whether the TPP was playing “number games,” stating that both sides should observe the rules they had agreed to.
Both sides should keep the greater interests of the state and the public in mind, he said, adding that he has been contacting both sides since early yesterday morning, hoping to facilitate a sit-down to resolve the issue.
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