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Taipei: The embattled presidential candidate for Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang, Hung Hsiu-chu, has refuted calls from her own party to step down, despite facing a likely landslide defeat in the island's forthcoming January election.
A defiant Ms Hung, who is trailing heavily behind opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen in the polls, stressed she planned to remain in the race to the end.
"I will insist on my original intention to run for president and carry out my promise … even though some party members have tried to persuade me to quit," the 67-year-old told reporters in Taipei on Tuesday.
Local media has widely reported that KMT party chairman Eric Chu had appealed to Ms Hung repeatedly to step down because of her disastrous polling numbers.
"Maybe she doesn't care about her personal success or failure," Dr Chu told reporters on Tuesday. "But as the KMT chairman, I must consider our party's future existence."
"I needed to tell her a truth that, from a grassroots level right up to heavyweights within the party, there are differing opinions and voices concerning her [nomination for presidential election]."
Taiwan's semi-official Central News Agency, citing an unnamed party official, reported the KMT would likely call a special party progress as soon as Wednesday to remove Ms Hung and install Dr Chu in her place.
The straight-talking Ms Hung is considered a controversial candidate for her conservative views and pro-Beijing stance, both of which have alienated the voting public and caused deep divisions within her own party.
Ms Hung won her nomination after emerging as her party's sole candidate for presidency in July, with other party heavyweights reluctant to come forward after a disastrous showing in last November's "nine-in-one" local elections, which forced outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou to stand down as party chairman.
The KMT has struggled to regain its standing, especially among younger voters, with widespread dissatisfaction over the party's handling of Taiwan's stagnant economy and growing youth unemployment.
Entrenched concern over the KMT's pursuit of increasingly close economic ties with China have remained a hot-button issue since protesters from the student-led Sunflower Movement stormed the Legislative Yuan in April last year to protest a trade services pact with the mainland.
Ms Hung's unpopularity has exacerbated panic within the party. One recent newspaper poll put her support at 12 per cent, compared to 45 per cent support for Dr Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party. Ms Hung's popularity rating was lower even than that of a third minor party presidential candidate, James Soong.
But Ms Hung said calls for her to quit the presidential race were "unreasonable" and any move to remove her would run against the KMT's bylaws and destroy the party's credibility in voters' eyes.
"I cannot think of a reason to quit at the moment," she said.
January's poll will be closely watched in Beijing, which favours the KMT. Cross-strait relations deteriorated significantly under the previous DPP government led by Chen Shui-bian. Dr Tsai, who was defeated by Mr Ma in the previous presidential election in 2012, has espoused a more moderate approach to cross-strait relations than her predecessors.
The reporter travelled to Taipei as a guest of Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
