KMT, TPP approve cooperation pact for local elections

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP) on Wednesday approved a cooperation agreement for the local elections later this year, under which the two parties agreed to jointly field candidates.

The agreement was separately passed by the KMT's Central Standing Committee and the TPP's Central Committee.

Under the pact's "nominate first, coordinate later" model, the two parties will prioritize incumbent mayors or county magistrates seeking re-election.

The document also states that the two parties will jointly nominate candidates only in cities and counties where both sides have negotiated and agreed to cooperate.

In selected jurisdictions, candidates will be selected through opinion polls.

The agreement stipulates that unweighted samples must reflect distributions of gender, age, education level and geographic area, and pass a representativeness test showing no significant difference from the overall population, with a p-value below 0.05.

Other details, including polling firms, sample size, methodology and weighting, will be determined at a later date, according to the agreement.

Each party will also assign three representatives to facilitate communication in future negotiations between the party headquarters.

In addition, a joint KMT-TPP campaign group will be established to support candidates nationwide.

At the KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, KMT Chairperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) expressed hope that the agreement would help the two parties secure victory in the Nov. 28 local elections and serve as a foundation for cooperation in the 2028 presidential election.

TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), meanwhile, said in a statement on Wednesday that the two parties will begin coordination in three areas where both have nominated candidates -- New Taipei, Yilan County and Chiayi City.