Former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) came out as the top contender for the next Taipei mayoral race, gaining more than 40 percent support in a latest poll over likely pan-green camp contenders, including lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s department of traumatology.
The poll released by the TVBS TV yesterday found that 48 percent of respondents said they would vote for Lien if he was running against Koo, while 24 percent said they would support Koo.
If Lien was running against Ko, 42 percent said they would vote for Lien, while 32 percent supported Ko, the survey showed.
Lien, who is on a trip to China with his father, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), yesterday maintained a low-key stance when asked if he would run in the seven-in-one municipal elections at the end of next year.
“I am still thinking about it... There are complicated situations to clarify, and I must make a responsible decision,” he said in Hangzhou.
The younger Lien is seen as the most competitive candidate for the pan-blue camp in the mayoral race.
However, he reportedly has been hesitant to commit because of health reasons and memories of a shooting incident at a campaign event in 2010 in which he was shot in the cheek.
He declined to comment on his family’s alleged opposition to his pursuing a political career.
Four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members have declared their intention to seek their party’s nomination for the race.
They are legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元) and Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), and Taipei City councilors Yang Shi-chiu (楊實秋) and Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠).
It is said that Sean Lien will make public his decision about the Taipei race early next year.
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