Lack of nationwide party or network could harm his chances
Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is a potential future
Mayor Ko (center) at a Teachers Day event Sept. 28. (By Central News Agency)
presidential candidate thanks to his blunt style, the Financial Times of London wrote in a profile this week.
The Kuomintang (國民黨) has fallen out of favor, especially with young people, while President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Democratic Progressive Party (民進黨) is struggling to live up to high expectations, leaving Ko as the man in the middle, the article says.
“He has called protesting pensioners “bastards,” compared Taiwan and China to quarrelling lovers and said it is a “miracle” he has survived three years in office,” the newspaper opened its report.
Ko is described as the most popular politician in Taiwan but commentators say he would struggle in a nationwide election because of the lack of a political party or network to back him up. The next presidential ballot is expected in January 2020, but late next year, he will be facing the Taipei mayoral election. [FULL STORY]