Opposition deadlock persists as registration deadline nears
ROC Central News Agency
11/22/2023 07:39 PM
Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's two main opposition parties have been unable to reach an agreement on how to use polling results to determine who will lead a joint presidential ticket, and now have less than 48 hours to hash out an agreement before the Nov. 24 candidacy registration deadline.
"If we keep looking at the same polling data, we aren't going to come to different conclusions," Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊), the campaign director for the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), said Wednesday in response to a Kuomintang (KMT) proposal to re-examine the nine previously reviewed polls and for the process to be broadcast.
"[If] we have to recalculate everything from scratch, which means starting over ... then we don't know why we spent five and a half hours on Nov. 17 [examining the poll results]," she said in a New Taipei press conference.
Broadcasting the process will only magnify the differences between the two sides and lead to conflict, she added.
The TPP and KMT had seemingly closed a deal on Nov. 15 and appeared to have reached an agreement on how to use polling data to decide the composition of a joint presidential ticket.
However, talks broke down on Nov. 18 following disputes over how to assess the polls, with definitions of the margin of error and the inclusion of three poll results being sources of contention.
The TPP on that day requested the exclusion of the three polling results -- two conducted exclusively using landlines and one based all on a text polling survey -- insisting that all polls should include landline and cellphone results.
In response, Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), a former lawmaker who heads the policy research group at Hou's campaign office, said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon that the KMT has been making significant efforts to cooperate with the TPP.
"Mayor Ko, do you want to [cooperate] or not? Give us your answer," Ko Chih-en said, calling out the TPP's presidential nominee Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who served as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022.
Ko Chih-en urged the TPP presidential nominee to re-examine all polling results in the remaining 48 hours.
Meanwhile, Tammy Lai (賴佩霞), independent presidential contender Terry Gou (郭台銘)'s running mate, acquired the application form for candidacy registration on Wednesday.
However, when asked by the press about the formal registration of their candidacy, Lai remained tight-lipped.
Gou has held a number of meetings with Ko since Nov. 19, which coincides with the breakdown of the KMT-TPP coalition.
This has fueled speculation that Gou, who had kept a low profile in recent days, could be considering withdrawing from the election and exploring the potential of cooperating with Ko.
Gou, the founder of iPhone assembler Foxconn, has refrained from making public appearances after China opened a tax probe into key Foxconn enterprises in several locations, including in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.
The opposition candidates will face off in the Jan. 13, 2024 election against Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, who has maintained a lead in opinion polls.
(By Chung Yu-chen)
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