VP Lai Set To Run For DPP 2024 Presidential Nomination

Taiwanese Vice-President Lai Ching-te is set to register his participation in the primary process for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s 2024 presidential primaries according to Taiwan's New Talk outlet. Incumbent Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is term limited and cannot run in 2024. Lai, a former Taiwanese premier, is seen as the front-runner for the DPP presidential nomination, having taken on the party chairmanship at the start of the year.

• The DPP is viewed as the more overtly pro-independence of the two main political parties (the main opposition Kuomintang is seen as more conciliatory towards Beijing), with Lai at the hard-line Taiwanese nationalist end of the DPP.
• Early opinion polling shows Lai leading against KMT chair Eric Chu, but trailing the KMT mayor of New Taipei Hou Yu-ih. For the first time since 2000, polls also show the prospect of a strong third-party challenge from progressive liberal Taiwanese People's Party head and former New Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je.
• The election is due to take place by April 2024 at the latest. A win for the eventual DPP candidate would be historic in being the first time in Taiwan's democratic history that a party has won a third consecutive term in office.