Taiwan’s presidential election season shifts into higher gear as KMT's Eric Chu starts campaign

Less than three months before the January 2016 Taiwan presidential election, the real fight between the three candidates began on Tuesday as the new presidential nominee of the ruling Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT) started his campaign.

Speaking on a radio show on Tuesday, KMT Chairman Eric Chu apologised to New Taipei citizens to whom he had previously promised he would not run in the 2016 race, which will be held in conjunction with legislative polls.

Chu was nominated by his party to stand in the electoral contest last weekend after the party’s highest decision making body rescinded its earlier nomination of Hung Hsiu-chu, the deputy legislative speaker, because of her declining popularity.

He began three-months of leave from his job as New Taipei mayor on Tuesday in order to concentrate on his campaign.

As Taiwan attaches great importance to Japan and the United States, the island’s presidential candidates usually visit these two strategic partners in the run-up to the election.

While Tsai Ing-wen, the presidential candidate for the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, has already visited the two countries, Chu said he was also assessing the possibility of doing the same.