Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT), in an extraordinary party Congress Saturday, removed Hung Hsiu-chu as it presidential nominee, replacing her with party chairman Eric Chu.
"All these reactions by the public tell us that we cannot go on like this. We need to adjust our pace and start anew," Chu told the party Congress, according to Central News Agency.
Hung Hsiu-chu also spoke at the special party Congress held at Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Hundreds of her supporters gathered to protest outside the Hall, according to AFP.
"Reminiscing about the cheering [I received] at the July 19 national congress, I am here today in the same place and with the same group of people, but the ideas harbored in their minds might be vastly different than they were three months ago," she said, The Taipei Times reported.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party's presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen, the front-runner in the presidential race, slammed the ruling party for changing presidential candidate three months before the scheduled election, saying that "a majority of Taiwanese people have already made up their minds, and no matter who replaces whom in the KMT, the people have decided to vote another party into power," Focus Taiwan reported.
She also admitted that her party would now manage election campaign carefully in wake of Chu's announcement as new KMT presidential nominee, according to The China Post. "We will be cautious. We will fight this (election) battle carefully," said Tsai.
