Former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou joins push to form joint opposition ticket in next year’s presidential election

In Taiwan, a former president named Ma Ying-jeou is trying to get two political parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), to join forces. They want to challenge the current ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in the upcoming presidential election. The DPP prefers Taiwan to be more independent, but Ma and the opposition parties have different views.

Polls show that the DPP's candidate, Vice-President William Lai, is in the lead. Ma suggests that the KMT and TPP should use these polls to decide who will be their candidate to compete against Lai. The KMT and TPP, known as the blue and white camps, are trying to agree on this method before the deadline to register for the election.

Ma is confident that a combined KMT-TPP ticket could defeat the DPP's Lai. However, they need to make a decision quickly. Some people are against the alliance, but Ma warns that not working together would actually help Lai. KMT chairman Eric Chu and Han Kuo-yu, who has a lot of support, also support Ma's idea. They are still discussing how to best approach the election, which will happen in January, along with other important legislative elections.