There’s plenty going on outside the DPP and KMT presidential primaries.
The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/08
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)
Credit: CEphoto / Uwe Aranas
In the first two articles of this series, we looked at the internal dynamics of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT) presidential primary races, both of which find themselves in unprecedented, unpredictable and potentially dangerous territory.
In both parties, unity is at stake as competing interests and factions go head-to-head. But there is a whole lot more going on outside of the parties that could determine the final shape of the race going into the presidential election season.
Third party or independent candidates could have significant impact, with the possible entry of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) being a potential game changer. Foreign powers, most notably China and the United States, are already starting to get involved in the race – with considerable concerns over direct meddling on the part of China. For the full details, read the previous two parts of the series, but to recap:
The DPP is currently running their primary as a public opinion poll after May 22, choosing the more popular of the two candidates – incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) or ex-Premier William Lai (賴清德) – among the public at large. The president is, according to most polling. more popular among party members, but is facing an unprecedented primary challenge from Lai. Currently, broad public opinion polls are leaning in Lai’s favor. This could lead to a lame duck president in office while the party’s candidate runs to replace her in office, an awkward arrangement at best. Should Tsai prevail, she will be faced with the challenge of healing the rifts that have opened up in the party – in part over her and the top party leadership’s current efforts to change the rules on the primary through delays to try and head off Lai’s challenge, which Lai’s supporters consider unfair and underhanded. [FULL STORY]
