The 2020 Taiwan regional election would be difficult for current Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen because of her low support on the island, an expert said on Wednesday, after Tsai's nomination as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate.
DPP nominated Tsai as candidate for the 2020 Taiwan regional election on Wednesday, haiwainet.cn reported.
Tsai delivered a speech at the DPP headquarters after being nominated.
This was a routine announcement after Tsai defeated her challenger, former Taiwan administrative authority head Lai Ching-te, and won the DPP inner-party primary poll with 35.7 percent of 16,051 respondents, which reflected the low participation of the voters.
"The 2020 election will be difficult for Tsai because of the DPP's poor performance in the past four years," said Yang Lixian, a research fellow at the Beijing-based Research Center on Cross-Straits Relations.
"The major defeat of DPP in the 'nine-in-one' elections showed that most people in Taiwan are not satisfied with Tsai's leadership, and there is little time left for Tsai to win them back before 2020," Yang said.
Among the 22 county and city chief posts, the Kuomintang (KMT) won 15, the DPP six, and the remaining one went to an independent candidate in the "nine-in-one" elections on November 24, 2018.
The KMT earlier announced five candidates, including Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu and Foxconn founder and CEO Terry Gou, for the party primary of the 2020 election, and the results will be announced on July 16, haiwainet.cn said.
The latest surveys and reports from some Taiwan-based media outlets and institutions said the anti-secession political figures in the island, such as Han and Gou, are more popular than the pro-secessionist DPP candidates and Tsai.
Tsai has been stiff against the Chinese mainland since she won the 2016 election, which has closed the door of communication across the Taiwan Straits and brought uncertainties to the region.
The US used Tsai's strong pro-secession stance to increase its leverage in dealing with China.
