TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Independent presidential candidate Terry Gou, along with his running mate Lai Pei-hsia, has surpassed the required number of signatures to officially enter Taiwan's presidential race, the Central Election Commission (CEC) confirmed on Tuesday (Nov. 14).
Following a commission meeting earlier in the day, the CEC declared that Gou and Lai had amassed over 900,000 signatures, well beyond the threshold necessary for registering as presidential and vice-presidential candidates. The official registration period is set from Nov. 20 to 24.
The CEC reported that, upon final verification, Gou and Lai had received 1,038,031 signatures, although they initially submitted 1,036,778 petition signatures. After disqualifying 135,642 signatures, the total number of valid signatures stood at 902,389, exceeding the requirement.
Additionally, the CEC noted that out of the ten groups collecting signatures, only the Gou-Lai pair managed to meet the threshold. The other nine groups failed to gather even half of the necessary signatures, resulting in their nomination deposits being forfeited under election law.
