Taiwan’s Tsai gets candidacy nod
Country must protect sovereignty, she says
TAIPEI: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen can prepare her re-election campaign with renewed confidence as her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party approved her nomination yesterday.
Ms Tsai’s nomination, which was approved at a meeting of the DPP’s Central Executive Committee, will be finalised by the party’s national congress on a date yet to be determined. The presidential election will be held in tandem with legislative polls on Jan 11.
Speaking at the meeting, Ms Tsai said challenges of next year’s elections are unprecedented, for both her party and Taiwan, but future objectives are clear.
“We must win the presidential election and secure at least half of the legislative seats,” she said.
With the primary elections over, it is time for the party to come together and work toward the common goal, she said, adding the most important factor in securing election victory is responding to the needs of the younger generation.
If re-elected, Ms Tsai pledged to maintain Taiwan’s freedom and democracy as well as to consolidate its sovereignty, which she said is something her party must commit itself to protecting.
The DPP chose its presidential candidate based on the results of opinion polls conducted last week by five polling firms via calls to resident landline and mobile phones.
The results of the primary, announced on June 13, showed that in all five surveys that polled a total of some 15,000 people, Ms Tsai received the most support, defeating her sole opponent, former Premier William Lai, by around 8 percentage points.
The opinion polls compared them and two other likely presidential runners, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu of the main opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, an independent.
Despite recent signs of a modest recovery in Ms Tsai’s popularity, next year’s election is likely to be close and hard-fought.
According to a poll released by the Apple Daily on Wednesday, Ms Tsai leads Mr Han only by 0.5 percent point and is 1.2 percentage points ahead of another KMT contender, former New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu.
If compared with another KMT hopeful, Foxconn Technology Group chief Terry Gou, Ms Tsai trails by 6.8 percentage points. The poll also showed that if Mr Ko joins the race, Ms Tsai stands no chance of winning, ending up in the second or third place.
The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, said it believes Ms Tsai will win the upcoming election, but the margin will be slim and the risks to this forecast remain high.
The EIU expects that Mr Han will win the KMT’s nomination in late July by edging out Mr Gou in the public opinion polls with his experience in government and “talent for grandstanding.”
It is also assuming that Mr Ko will not run in the upcoming race, which it said would give a bigger boost to the DPP, to which the Taipei mayor is more closely aligned than he is to the KMT.