Chairman of Taiwan’s People First Party (PFP), James Soong, announced on Thursday that he will run in the presidential election next January. The PFP is a smaller party in the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) led Pan-Blue Coalition.
Soong said he is running because Taiwan needs a trustworthy government. He said while the two major parties -- the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party -- are calling for unity within their parties, the PFP will strive to forge a consensus across party lines.
This will be Soong’s third presidential bid. He ran unsuccessfully in 2000 as an independent and again in 2012 as PFP chairman.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu responded to the announcement of Soong’s announcement by saying that the KMT will do all it can to unite and gain public support. Chu said that in the past, the KMT has failed to win when there is a split in the Pan-Blue Coalition.