Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the TPP cannot accept the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) demand for it to yield a 6 percentage point support rate in opinion polls, but added it would continue to negotiate on their coalition for the January presidential election.
The KMT and the TPP were originally scheduled to announce at 10am yesterday the aggregated result of opinion polls to decide who would lead in their joint presidency bid, but they suddenly called a halt, as the two parties failed to reach a consensus on the interpretation of opinion poll results.
At a news conference at 10:30am, Ko’s campaign office spokesperson Vicky Chen (陳智菡) said that the TPP has agreed to yielding 3 percentage points in polls to New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, upon which a joint ticket being a Ko-Hou ticket or a Hou-Ko ticket would be decided.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, the KMT claims that the TPP should yield 6 percentage points, which would result in the Hou-led ticket winning in five of the six opinion polls, she said, adding that the two sides could not reach an agreement, with the discussion therefore being dismissed at about 2:20am yesterday, leading to the 10am announcement being canceled.
Chen said that Trend Survey’s opinion poll showed that the Ko-Hou team-up received 48.3 percent support, compared with the 39.2 percent obtained by the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), along with his presumptive running mate, Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴); the difference between them is 9.1 percentage points.
The same poll showed that the Hou-Ko team-up received 46.1 percent support, compared with the Lai-Hsiao team-up with 41.6 percent, a difference of 4.5 percentage points, she said, adding that the difference between the first and second group of comparisons is 4.6 percentage points.
While the margin of error for each poll is different, not always exactly 3 percentage points, 4.6 percentage points is still larger than the 2.17 percentage points margin of error for this poll, so the Ko-led ticket should win this poll, she said.
Citing the numbers from the United Daily News’ poll, Chen said the difference between the first and second group of comparisons was zero, so Ko yielded and allowed the Hou-led ticket to win the poll, and the aggregated result of the six polls should be a draw of three to three, but the KMT would not accept it.
Ko said that the KMT first proposed to form a “blue-white (KMT-TPP)” alliance about six months ago.
“I at the time said a blue-white alliance is acceptable, but there must be a fair method of conducting opinion polls, and I also proposed to hold three debate sessions before conducting public polling, then I proposed only comparing public polls, but they [the KMT] also refused,” he said.
“At the end, aside from asking us to yield 3 percentage points to Hou, we were also asked to have both of us [Hou and Ko] on the same ticket,” he said. “On Wednesday, I agreed to yield the 3 percentage points ... which led to my aides bursting into tears.”
“Unexpectedly, at the meeting on Friday night the KMT demanded that we yield 6 percentage points,” he said.
“You [the KMT] are not trying to beat Ko Wen-je today, but to defeat Lai in the presidential election, and in the real election, Lai would not yield even 0.01 percentage points,” Ko said.
“Frankly speaking, asking us to yield 6 percentage points is beyond the public’s common sense,” Ko said.
Meanwhile, Ko said that since the KMT-TPP meeting on Wednesday, some political talk shows have accused him of being forced to concede to the terms of agreement because he was threatened by the Chinese Communist Party.
“If anyone continues to spread that rumor, I will file a lawsuit against them for aggravated libel,” Ko said.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS