Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu won KMT’s presidential primary

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu will represent the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the 2020 presidential election.   On July 15, KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih announced that Han defeated other four candidates in the polls conducted in the last seven days.    Han received a 44.805% support, while his closest challenger, former Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Kuo receiving 27.73% support. The polls were conducted by five different pollsters in a very complicated manner.  First, the polls compared the popularity of five candidates.  Its weight was only 15%.  Next each candidate ran against President Tsai Ing-wen, representing DPP; and independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, a potential candidate from third group.  This accounted for 85% of weight.     According to the news released by KMT, five polling companies gather a total of 15,185 valid samples via landlines (home).   The telephone survey did not include cell phone.    Among the other contenders, former New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu received 17.90% support, Chou His-wei 6.02%, and Chang Ya-chung 3.54%.   Chu was KMT’s presidential candidate in 2016 and was defeated by President Tsai by wide margin.   Chu prepared for 2020 comeback for long time.  Unfortunately, this time KMT supporters prefer Han.   Terry Kuo jumped into the race only three months ago.   If he entered the race earlier, he might win the race.    Han was elected to the office of Kaohsiung only six months ago.  His decision to seek higher office irritated residents of Kaoshiung.  As a result, two citizen groups would intensify efforts to recall Han.  Citizens Mowing Action and We Care Kaohsiung are leading a campaign to collect signatures to force a recall vote on the mayor.  They critisized Han as a “runwaay mayor” who is uninterested in governing the city and who broke his promise and lied to his supporters.  The disappointment and anger toward Han were reflected in the number of signatures that the campaign organizers have collected for a recall petition.      To this date, they collected over 130,000 signatures.  Regarding Han’s political career, in the worst case, Han might get beaten by President Tsai in the presidential election next January and be removed from his office by a successful recall later.