Taiwan’s former vice-president Annette Lu Hsiu-lien to vie for presidency in ‘mission from heaven’
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Lu, who served between 2000 and 2008 under president Chen Shui-bian, surprised former colleagues in the ruling independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party by standing against incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen and the opposition Kuomintang’s Han Kuo-yu.
“After weighing whether to run for several months, I finally decided on [Monday] to take part in the presidential election,” she said in Taipei, adding that she would represent the newly established Formosa Alliance Party.
Lu said she decided to run because she was worried about the long political confrontation between the DPP and the KMT, and the mainland’s attempt to swallow up Taiwan.
“For this, I decide to fight for Taiwan once again,” said 75-year-old Lu, who described her presidential bid as a “mission from heaven”.
Lu said she would apply to run as an independent because her party had never taken part in the island’s elections and so was disqualified from nominating a presidential candidate.