Taiwanese opposition parties remain deadlocked over joint ticket as election deadline looms

In Taiwan, the political scene is heating up as the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) has turned down a suggestion from the Kuomintang (KMT), which is the biggest opposition party, to join forces for the upcoming presidential election in January. Both parties, which are friendly towards mainland China, are stuck in a disagreement on how to choose their candidate to go up against the current ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by William Lai Ching-te. They need to make a decision quickly because the deadline to register candidates is this Friday. They had planned to use opinion polls to decide who should be their leader, but they couldn't agree on what the polls were telling them. Hou Yu-ih, the KMT's choice for president, suggested that they should each pick their own experts to look at the polls, but TPP's leader, Ko Wen-je, didn't agree. Ko's campaign manager, Huang Shan-shan, mentioned that they need to come up with a fair method that both sides' supporters can agree on. Huang also emphasized the need for a strong team to challenge the DPP's candidate, otherwise, it would be an easy win for Lai Ching-te. Although Huang didn't say who should be in charge, most polls show Ko is more popular than Hou by at least three points. When asked if the discussions were over, Huang said they are waiting for the KMT's next move. The KMT accused Ko of breaking a previous agreement about the polls, but they are still open to finding a solution and will wait until the deadline to form their team. The talks had been going nowhere until the former KMT president, Ma Ying-jeou, stepped in to help last week. Ko has already picked up the paperwork to run for president and has vowed to fight to the end. He has also met with Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Foxconn, who wants to run as an independent. Huang sees Gou as a key player in the opposition and wants to unite all opposition forces. Gou is behind in the polls but is working on getting registered. Meanwhile, Lai from the DPP has completed his registration and chosen Hsiao Bi-khim, the unofficial ambassador to the US, as his running mate.