ELECTION 2024/Election result shows TPP has ushered in three-party politics in Taiwan: Ko

Taipei, Jan. 13 (CNA) Taiwan People's Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Saturday that despite losing the election, the TPP has ushered in a new era of Taiwanese politics that includes three major parties, with the TPP set to become a "critical minority" in the legislature.

Saturday's election reaffirmed the widely held belief that Taiwan needs a voice other than the pan-green and the pan-blue political camps, and that that voice will be critical in guiding the country, Ko told thousands of supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in New Taipei.

The TPP secured eight legislative seats on the back of the party vote on Saturday, while the Kuomintang (KMT) secured 52 and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) finished with 51. The remaining two were won by independent candidates. Neither of the two major parties won an absolute majority.

With the new batch of lawmakers set to be sworn in on Feb. 1, there is no time to wallow in sadness, Ko told the crowd, adding that he will still be up early for work tomorrow morning.

Vowing to continue working hard, Ko said he believed four years down the line, TPP supporters will be just as confident as they were on Saturday when they voted for him and the TPP.

▶ No party gets legislative majority; small TPP to play key role

Meanwhile, Ko said during a post-election press conference that he will stay on as TPP chairman, in response to media queries about whether he plans to resign from the post to take responsibility for his loss.

"At this juncture, this party would fall apart if I resigned. So, for the time being, I have to continue working to deal with the written report [on the elections] and issues surrounding our lawmakers."

There is no need to resign for the sake of resigning, as the TPP has its own schedule for electing its chair, Ko added.

Asked to comment on Ko's defeat, a member of his campaign team, who asked not to be named, said the discussions with the KMT about a joint ticket and the subsequent collapse of those efforts had eroded Ko's support base, which comprised mainly borderline KMT and DPP supporters and people who were unenthusiastic about backing either of those two parties.

When Ko initiated dialogue with the KMT, he alienated the causal supporters of the DPP, and when the proposed KMT-TPP alliance fell through in November, moderate KMT supporters largely rallied behind Hou, according to the TPP source.

That sealed Ko's fate as the underdog in the three-way race, the source said.

Opposition unravels

With Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of the DPP consistently leading in polls, an alliance between Ko and KMT's Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) was widely viewed as crucial if Lai were to be defeated. However, talks about a joint KMT-TPP ticket seemed doomed from the outset, even as the two opposition parties started in mid-October to explore the possibility of a joint presidential ticket.

Despite engaging in multiple rounds of negotiations, the two camps were constantly at loggerheads, bickering over the method that should be used to choose the ticket leader and, later, how to evaluate opinion polls, until all chances of compromise disappeared.

The months-long attempt to form a joint ticket officially ended when Ko and Hou separately registered their presidential candidacies on Nov. 24, the deadline set by the Centra Election Commission (CEC).

It was the unraveling of that potential alliance that marked Ko's decline in the opinion polls, as he dropped from second to third place in a majority of them.

A look back at the journey

Nevertheless, Ko, who had founded the TPP in 2019 as Taiwan's undisputed "third political party," succeeded during the campaign in propelling the TPP to greater prominence by appealing to the public to reject the "DPP and KMT" dichotomy.

Rallying under the slogan "Abandon the Blue, Green camps; Safeguard Taiwan," Ko bolstered the confidence of supporters, after the KMT-TPP negotiations broke down.

During the presidential campaign, he focused primarily on livelihood issues, but he chose to maintain an ambiguous stance on politically divisive matters, particularly his cross-strait policy, which drew heavy criticism of him as being evasive.

On Jan. 5, for example, when asked about his views on Beijing's "one China" principle, Ko told reporters, "Mainstream opinion in the world does not accept that there are 'two Chinas.' Full stop," and he declined to comment further.

A former physician, Ko attracted younger voters, who loved his perceived candor and flair for channeling plain and often acerbic language when discussing national issues. Among eligible voters under the age of 40, Ko consistently maintained a big lead over his rivals, in the pre-election polls.

His popularity among older voters, however, remained weak, according to TPP insiders.

While Ko had put forth various social welfare proposals in a bid to appeal to seniors and had urged his young supporters to help win over their elderly relatives, the election results indicated that he failed to make a dent in the older demographic.

Ko's perceived future

According to a source within the TPP, Ko's loss in the 2024 presidential race is not the end of road for him politically.

The eight seats grabbed by the TPP, an increase of three compared to the 2020 elections, could position the party as a critical minority in the Legislature, the source said.

In addition, Ko managed to secure more than 26 percent of the popular vote, which the TPP sees as a "passing score," the source said.

According to the vote count from the CEC, Lai secured victory with 5,584,920 votes, or 40.05 percent of the total. Hou garnered 4,671,021 votes, or 33.49 percent, while Ko received 3,690,466 votes, representing 26.46 percent. 

Ko could become a force to be reckoned with in the next presidential election in 2028, if he could extend his appeal to older voters and if the TPP makes a strong showing in the 2026 local government elections under his leadership, the source said.