00:00The main opposition, Go Min Dang, and the smaller Taiwan People's Party say they will cooperate in Taiwan's upcoming local
00:06elections in November.
00:08The two parties will back the same candidates in some races, while giving priority to incumbents seeking re-election.
00:15Any conflicting nominations will be determined through polling and negotiations.
00:20Both parties have vowed to work together to defeat the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
00:28To find out more about what the joint KMT-TPP policy platform means for Taiwan's voting landscape,
00:35Leslie Liao spoke with political analyst Courtney Donovan-Smith.
00:39Is there anything in this agreement that sticks out to you in particular?
00:43Number one is that they've come up with a joint platform that is fundamentally sensible for dealing with local elections.
00:50In other words, the joint issues they've chosen make sense within that context.
00:55Number two, their framework generally works, but here's the sticking point,
01:01is that there's still a lot of little details that need to be worked out.
01:06Right now, they've agreed to a framework on unweighted polls, but they have not come out with an agreement on
01:12weighted polls.
01:14One of the key things that has yet to be determined is that the TPP lacks a lot of experienced
01:20politicians,
01:21positions both in government and in politicking.
01:25And so should they lose in the three contested nominations,
01:30they will want to have positions in the government.
01:34For example, should the KMT win in those areas,
01:38they're going to want vice commissioner positions or vice mayor positions,
01:44and also positions within their cabinet or top officials so that they can build name recognition and gain experience.
01:54We've seen the KMT and the TPP try and form a joint presidential ticket in 2024,
01:59but those talks fell apart.
02:02Now, is there anything in this agreement here that's different that would indicate
02:06that this cooperation wouldn't go down the same way?
02:09TPP party chair Huang Guocheng is a lot less prickly toward the KMT than Ke Wenzhe traditionally has been.
02:20He's much more devoted to bringing down the DPP and particularly Lai Ching-de.
02:27And so he has, it appears personally, a lot more invested in this cooperation working.
02:34Another detail is that the stakes are not as high.
02:38Now, with this collaboration agreement, are the two parties, in particular the TPP,
02:44are they able to maintain a separate and distinct identity?
02:48If you look at past examples, for example, the new party, the People's First Party,
02:55and the Taiwan Solidarity Union,
02:58they generally lasted around two, three, four election cycles before they began to fade into obscurity.
03:06There is a risk that if they become too tied in with the KMT,
03:10that more and more they will become perceived as just simply a little blue party
03:15or a adjunct to or a subsidiary of the KMT.
03:21So this is something that the TPP will have to balance carefully.
03:26That was political analyst Courtney Donovan-Smith.
