Kuomintang Chairman Eric Chu apologized to the party’s presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu on Tuesday. This was the first time he made a formal apology to Hung after many rumors and moves towards replacing her as presidential candidate. Hung has had very low ratings in the polls.
Chu apologized for not working hard enough to win public support for the party.
"As the party chairman, I must take the responsibility for the low public support and the troubles in the party," said Chu.
"I have not worked hard enough and have not communicated enough. I want to apologize to all our party members and I want to express my highest apologies to Deputy Speaker Hung for what has happened, for making this decision we had no choice but to make. I will give a formal apology and explanation tomorrow at the Central Standing Committee meeting and Saturday at the party congress."
There have been many people in the party calling for the replacement of Hung as presidential candidate but she also has many supporters. Chu said there are many different voices in the party, and the theme of the upcoming party session will be “forging a consensus, uniting to win the election”. He said the KMT must be united to win.