《TAIPEI TIMES》 Gou’s campaign wants to ‘unite the opposition’

/ Staff Writer, with CNA

Foxconn founder Terry Gou’s （郭台銘） presidential campaign said yesterday that Gou wants to “unite the opposition,” but declined to say if he would accept any arrangements where he does not feature at the top of the ticket.

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Campaign spokesman Huang Shih-hsiu （黃士修） made the remarks after Gou and his running mate, actress Tammy Lai （賴佩霞）, registered to begin a signature drive to qualify for next year’s presidential ballot.

Huang told reporters that while Lai is an important figure in Taiwan’s political scene, she would be willing to bow out from the presidential race if Gou achieved his goal of consolidating the opposition.

If the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） and the Taiwan People’s Party （TPP） agreed to nominate “the strongest presidential ticket,” Gou would directly register as the parties’ nominee, and there would be no need for him to submit signatures to get on the ballot as an independent, Huang said, without elaborating on how this would happen.

When asked whether Gou would insist on being part of any joint opposition presidential ticket, Huang said that Gou’s political movement, the “mainstream public opinion alliance,” did not have any pre-set position on the matter.

However, Gou is confident that he is the best candidate, and would engage in “healthy competition” to prove it, Huang said.

To qualify for Taiwan’s presidential ballot as an independent, Gou would need signatures by at least 1.5 percent of the number of voters in the previous presidential election — or 289,667 signatures — by Nov. 2.

If he does qualify, he would also have to overcome recent opinion polls, as he is currently in a distant fourth place with about 10 percent of the overall support.

Gou launched his independent presidential run last month after unsuccessfully campaigning for the KMT’s nomination, for the second time, and despite having quit the party in 2019.

Taiwan is to hold its presidential and legislative elections next year on Jan. 13.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES