Taiwan Opposition Unification Ultimately Fails, Candidates Register Separately... DPP Likely to Regain Power

Controversy Over Unification Conditions Stalls Progress
Favorable Landscape for Ruling Minjindang

As the unification between opposition candidates, which had emerged as a major variable in the Taiwan presidential election, fell through, it is reported that each candidate has completed their registration independently. Accordingly, the presidential election in January next year is expected to be favorable to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

According to Taiwanese media such as Central News Agency on the 24th, the unification between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which had previously announced an agreement on candidate unification, failed. TPP candidate Ko Wen-je officially completed his candidate registration with the Central Election Commission on the same day. Ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline for candidate registration, KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih also announced plans to register independently.

Earlier, on the 15th, the pro-China KMT and the centrist TPP had agreed on candidate unification and planned to announce the presidential and vice-presidential candidates on the 18th based on public opinion polls.

However, disagreements arose between the candidates of the two parties over the conditions for unification, such as the acceptable margin of error in the polls, causing the unification negotiations to reach an impasse. The parties continued negotiations afterward, and on the 23rd, Hou, Ko, and independent candidate Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn, met, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement on the key issue of the polls, resulting in the failure of unification.

Accordingly, the ruling DPP, which had been highly tense over the opposition's unification efforts, is expected to breathe a sigh of relief. Various polls have consistently shown DPP candidate Lai Ching-te maintaining the top spot in approval ratings.

Until now, Hou and Ko had been running second and third in the polls, and analyses had suggested that if they unified, whoever became the presidential candidate would surpass Lai, signaling a red light for the DPP's re-election prospects.