Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday announced his intention to run in the race to lead the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), with details of his campaign to be announced today.
Lo, 55, made the announcement in a Facebook post with a photograph of him standing next to a statue of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), founder of the Republic of China and the KMT.
Photo from Lo Chih-chiang's Facebook
Lo, who represents the sixth electoral district in Taipei that mostly covers Daan (大安) and Wenshan (文山) districts and who survived a recall vote on July 26, said in the post that his top priority would be to stop President William Lai (賴清德) from winning a second four-year term in 2028.
The lawmaker accused Lai of abusing power in attacking the opposition and called the president the biggest threat to democracy in Taiwan.
To keep those who seek to establish authoritarian rule in check, he said he wanted to strengthen the KMT and promote unity within the party.
The race to replace Eric Chu (朱立倫) as KMT chair has begun in earnest after the former KMT presidential candidate recently announced that he would not run for re-election in October.
On Saturday after KMT lawmakers survived the last seven recall votes against them, Chu called for Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to take up the party leadership.
However, the mayor of Taiwan's second-largest municipality in terms of population at 2.8 million — whose term ends late next year — announced she would not run, citing the economic challenges facing her city, leaving the KMT chair race wide open.
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