KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang joins race for party chair

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) announced on Monday his intention to run in the race to lead the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), with details of his campaign to be announced Tuesday.

Lo, 55, made the announcement in a Facebook post with a photo of him standing next to a statue of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), the founding father of the Republic of China and founder of the KMT.

Lo, who represents the sixth electoral district in Taipei that mostly covers Da'an and Wenshan districts and who survived a recall vote on July 26, said in the post that his top priority will be to stop President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) from winning a second four-year term in 2028.

The lawmaker accused Lai of abusing power in attacking the opposition and called the president the biggest threat to democracy in Taiwan.

To keep those who seek to establish authoritarian rule in check, he said he wanted to strengthen the KMT and promote unity within the party.

The race to replace Eric Chu (朱立倫) as KMT chairman has begun in earnest after the former KMT presidential candidate recently announced that he will not run for reelection in October.

On Saturday after KMT lawmakers survived the last seven recall votes against them, Chu called for Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to take up the party leadership.

But the mayor of Taiwan's second largest municipality in terms of population at 2.8 million, whose term ends in late 2026, announced she would not run, citing the economic challenges facing her city, leaving the KMT chair race wide open.