Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Foxconn) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) on Tuesday officially qualified for Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election after the Central Election Commission (CEC) validated the independent candidate’s 902,389-signature citizen petition.
In a statement, the CEC said that Gou and running mate Tammy Lai (賴佩霞) submitted a total of 1,038,031 signatures, more than the 1,036,778 counted by their campaign staff, of which 902,389, or 87 percent, were valid.
According to the CEC, Gou’s campaign will be issued a certificate certifying that the duo passed the signature threshold and also have an NT$1 million deposit returned.
Gou and Lai needed at least 289,667 signatures, or 1.5 percent of all eligible voters in the 2020 presidential election, to get on the ballot.
Out of the ten petition campaigns registered with the CEC, only five submitted any signatures.
Besides Gou and Lai, none of the other nine campaigns passed the threshold to make it onto the ballot.
Lan Hsin-chi ( 藍信祺) and Chou Ke-chi (周克琦) submitted 146 endorsements, of which 58 were valid.
Fu Yin (符音) and Hsieh Tsu-hsuan (謝祖鉉) submitted 113 endorsements, of which 91 were valid.
Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才) and Huang Sheng-feng (黃聖峰) submitted 608 endorsements, of which 473 were valid.
Meanwhile, Chen Mei-fei (陳美妃) and Wu Chao-sheng (巫超勝) submitted 256,773 endorsements -- only two of which were accepted.
The nine unsuccessful registered campaigns will each forfeit NT$1 million deposits for failing to garner half the required number of endorsements from Sept. 19 to Nov. 2 during which presidential aspirants could submit endorsements, the CEC said.
In a statement, Gou's campaign thanked the CEC staff and all the people who supported the petition drive, adding that the Hon Hai founder would work to bring about cross-strait peace as well as prosperity and a clean government to Taiwan.
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