TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), a legislator representing Hualien County, announced his intention to run for the position of deputy speaker of the Legislative Yuan on Sunday (Jan. 21), and called for parliamentary reforms in his announcement.

The Kuomintang (KMT) legislator’s announcement took many by surprise, coming only days after Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) announced they would seek the leadership positions of president and deputy of the newly formed Legislative Yuan, in which no party achieved a majority in recent legislative elections. Fu’s bid for leadership has been roundly criticized by members of his own party, due to his prior convictions for corruption as an elected official.

Fu Kun-chi served as a legislator for Hualien from 2002 to 2009, elected first as an independent, and then as a member of the KMT. He was later elected as Magistrate of Hualien County in 2009 as an independent, after being passed over as nominee by the KMT.

During his time as an elected official, Fu was charged with multiple crimes, including insider stock trading, manipulating local media organizations and tax evasion. Despite being sentenced to almost three years in jail, he still won reelection as a legislator representing Hualien in 2020.

In 2021, Fu rejoined the KMT and subsequently won reelection to the Legislative Yuan in 2024. Despite his reputation for corruption, Fu has gained the nickname the “King of Hualien,” due to his popularity among Hualien voters.

In response to Fu’s bid to seek a leadership role in the Legislative Yuan, Han Kuo-yu said that he will not discuss actions of individual party legislators, reported UDN. However, Han emphasized that his intention in running for the position of President of the Legislative Yuan is to combat corruption in government, which although directed at the Democratic Progressive Party, might be seen as a subtle dig at Fu, given his criminal history.

Despite the low chance of KMT legislators rallying behind Fu for the position of deputy, he has already been in contact with legislators of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who with eight legislators, will exercise an outsize influence in the new Legislative Yuan.

On Sunday afternoon, TPP party leader Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) spoke to the press, saying that one of the TPP’s main goals is to reform Taiwan’s legislative system into a parliamentary model. Ko said that Fu Kun-chi had already reached out to the TPP to express his hope to cooperate with the party on achieving such reforms, per UDN.