While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has announced her registration for the party’s presidential primary for next year’s election, the situation is not entirely clear in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), where KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) are the most eye-catching duo.
Tsai registered for the DPP’s presidential primary yesterday.
Meanwhile, KMT party spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) said the party would make an announcement about potential candidates after discussions to be held after the Lunar New Year.
The KMT, challenged by a major setback in last year’s nine-in-one election, has remained low-profile about next year’s presidential race.
Succeeding President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as the new party chairman, Chu has worked on party reforms, completing the tasks of restructuring the party’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee, think tank and local party offices.
Despite Chu’s promise when he ran for party chairman that he would not join next year’s race, a party official who declined to be named said the KMT could launch a bottom-up initiative encouraging Chu’s candidacy and therefore he would not rule out Chu’s running for president on the KMT ticket.
Wang, another possible KMT candidate, had dismissed speculation that he plans to announce his candidacy after the Lunar New Year.
However, most recently, he said: “[I am] not thinking about the matter at this point; maybe later,” which has since elicited extensive speculation.
Vice President Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) next move also has the public’s attention, but the party official said that since Wu once said that he was the vice chairman appointed by Ma the chairman — meaning that he would play only the role of Ma’s deputy — it is not likely that Wu would join the race.
The party official said that it is rare for both the main opposition party and the ruling party to launch presidential primaries before the Lunar New Year, adding that it is more that the DPP started early than that the KMT is slow.
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