Hsiao Hsu-tsen, executive director of Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, said: “Former president Ma will be there as a witness, but not to help coordinate the two sides [over their dispute] nor to express his personal views.”
Hsiao said “time is running short” for a prospective KMT-TPP joint ticket and “this would be the last chance” for the two sides to make a decision.
“The ex-president believes if the two parties fail to cooperate, they could stand to lose the race,” Hsiao said, adding the KMT might also suffer in the legislative race, which would allow the DPP to maintain its “one-party domination”.
The two sides have agreed to cooperate because polling figures suggest that a “blue-white” ticket – named after the KMT and TPP party colours – is the most likely route to defeating the independence-leaning DPP.
03:04
On US stopover, Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai vows to lead Taiwan with peace
On US stopover, Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai vows to lead Taiwan with peace
The TPP’s preferred method is seen as more likely to favour their candidate Ko – who has polled better than Hou in five opinion surveys he commissioned – while the KMT’s method is more likely to benefit the larger party, which can gather more support across the island.
Ma has urged the larger party to accept the TPP’s preferred method, saying the KMT has used it to select its candidates for a long time.
On Tuesday, former KMT legislature speaker Wang Jin-pyng backed the idea of a joint ticket, but said Hou should head the ticket as his party would be able to provide more resources during the campaign.
“The KMT has firm organising and campaigning systems all over Taiwan to help its candidates and it also has bigger electoral resources for the candidate to utilise,” Wang said.
Can US and China give each other the reassurances they want on Taiwan?
Can US and China give each other the reassurances they want on Taiwan?
The century-old party – which has hundreds of offices at various levels across Taiwan – now controls 14 of the island’s 22 cities and counties, compared with the two controlled by the TPP. It also holds 38 of the 113 seats in the legislature as opposed to the TPP’s five.
So far, a sizeable number of KMT loyalists have said that the joint ticket would benefit the TPP more than the KMT as it would be helping the smaller party win seats in the legislative elections held on January 13, the same day as the presidential poll.
Since he was not a political party’s nominee, he needed to collect at least 290,000 signatures from eligible voters in order to register his candidacy – a figure he easily passed with more than 900,000 signatures.
Like the other candidates, he still needs to register his candidacy before next Friday.
Gou thanked his supporters and said he “will diligently work with all of them to achieve cross-strait peace, economic prosperity and a clean government”.