TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party will pick New Taipei City mayor Hou Yu-ih to be its presidential candidate at the election early next year, a senior party source told Reuters on Wednesday.
The run-up to the vote in mid-January is taking place at a time of increased tensions between Taipei and Beijing, which has staged regular military exercises near Taiwan to assert its sovereignty claims over the democratically governed island despite Taiwan’s strong objections.
The KMT favours close ties with China while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) champions Taiwan’s separate identity.
The senior party source said the KMT will announce Hou as the presidential candidate later on Wednesday. A second party source said Hou is widely expected within the party to become the candidate. Both sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The KMT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan media reported this week that Hou is expected to be KMT’s choice for the 2024 poll, running against the DPP’s William Lai, Taiwan’s vice president.
Formerly the head of the National Police Agency, 65-year-old Hou gained popularity after winning a re-election in New Taipei city late last year in a local election in which the KMT trounced the DPP.
The KMT denies being pro-Beijing, although it supports maintaining good relations with China as well as the proposal that both are part of a single China though each can have its own interpretation of the term.
Despite its differences with China, the DPP has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing that have been rebuffed.
While the KMT has framed the 2024 vote as a choice between war and peace, DPP’s Lai has urged voters to choose “democracy” over authoritarianism.
(Reporting By Sarah Wu and Yimou Lee; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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