TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan People’s Party presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday (Dec. 16) rejected claims that voters would abandon him in favor of Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) by saying 70% of voters did not want the KMT to run the country.

Taiwan elections sometimes feature strategic voting in a so-called “dump/save effect” (棄保效應), when supporters of a candidate polling in third place end up giving their vote to the one in second place to try and defeat the frontrunner.

As Ko has been running third in most opinion polls for the Jan. 13 elections, voters might decide to turn away from him and instead back Hou as the candidate most likely to defeat the presidential frontrunner, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德).

While 65% of voters wanted to oust the DPP to achieve a change of government, 70% did not want the KMT to take its place, Ko told reporters Saturday. He did not quote his sources for the percentages, but told the media to go and conduct their own surveys, the Liberty Times reported.

He said last year’s local elections showed that the political landscape in Taiwan was already divided into three main blocks. The DPP and the KMT were the two traditional parties, with the TPP emerging as the new third force, according to Ko.