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Taiwan Opposition to run together in 2004 presidential elections
Taipei, Dec 15: Taiwan`s two biggest Opposition parties today decided to join forces and run together in the 2004 presidential elections.
Taipei, Dec 15: Taiwan's two biggest Opposition parties today decided to join forces and run together in the 2004 presidential elections.
''The chairmen of both parties have decided to cast aside their political differences and rewrite the history by pledging to fully cooperate,'' said Lin Feng-Cheng, secretary-general of the main Opposition Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT).
''We will comply with the request of the general public and the consensus of all social sectors to jointly nominate one presidential ticket to run in the 2004 elections,'' said Lin, reading a joint declaration issued by the KMT and its splinter group People First Party (PFP) after the leaders met in Taipei.
Analysts said that the alliance, formed just a week after the crucial mayoral elections, would deal a blow to incumbent President Chen Shui-Bian of the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chen's popularity has recently slipped by almost half to below 40 per cent due to public disgruntlement with his government's poor performance. Chen would therefore have a tough battle to fight in his re-election bid in 2004, they said.
The Chen government has come under fire for its failure to improve the flagging economy and record-high unemployment since it took over from the KMT government in mid-2000.
''We will comply with the request of the general public and the consensus of all social sectors to jointly nominate one presidential ticket to run in the 2004 elections,'' said Lin, reading a joint declaration issued by the KMT and its splinter group People First Party (PFP) after the leaders met in Taipei.
Analysts said that the alliance, formed just a week after the crucial mayoral elections, would deal a blow to incumbent President Chen Shui-Bian of the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chen's popularity has recently slipped by almost half to below 40 per cent due to public disgruntlement with his government's poor performance. Chen would therefore have a tough battle to fight in his re-election bid in 2004, they said.
The Chen government has come under fire for its failure to improve the flagging economy and record-high unemployment since it took over from the KMT government in mid-2000.
Last Saturday's mayoral polls in the capital Taipei and the southern port city of Kaohsiung witnessed the success of a united KMT-PFP, which scored an impressive victory amid waning support for the Chen government and the ruling DPP.
The mayoral polls saw the DPP suffering a serious setback in the capital race, with the Opposition KMT incumbent mayor Ma Ying-Jeou defeating his DPP challenger Lee Ying-Yuan by almost 400,000 votes.
In Kaohsiung, the DPP incumbent mayor Frank Hsieh experienced a neck-and-neck fight, though he finally beat his KMT challenger Huang Jun-Ying by a razor-thin margin.
Bureau Report