TAIPEI (Reuters) – Billionaire Terry Gou, founder of Taiwanese industrial group Foxconn, has collected three times the number of signatures needed to run in Taiwan’s presidential election, the government announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, Terry Gou thanked his supporters for their “enthusiastic support” and pledged to work to achieve “peace across the Taiwan Strait.”
Terry Gou, who announced his candidacy in August, said he wanted to unite the opposition and ensure that Taiwan does not become “the next Ukraine”, accusing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of leading the island on the brink of war with China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory.
Terry Gou, who left his post as Foxconn director in 2019, needed to collect around 300,000 voter signatures before November 2 to be eligible to run as an independent candidate, according to election rules.
According to the electoral commission, he obtained more than 900,000 valid signatures. He now has until next Friday to officially register his candidacy with the commission.
Aged 73, Terry Gou is among four candidates in the election which is to be held in January. According to opinion polls, he is the candidate with the fewest voting intentions, far behind current Vice President Lai Ching-te (DPP).
(Reporting Jeanny Kao and Yimou Lee; Written by Ben Blanchard; Dagmarah Mackos, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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