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Talks between Taiwan's main opposition parties -- the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party --appear to have collapsed.
The two sides had initially agreed to work together to form a joint presidential bid for the upcoming election in January.
But both parties walked out of talks, following bitter negotiations that were broadcast live on television.
Political parties have until tomorrow to register to run.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party had confirmed their candidacy with the election office on Tuesday.
Tan Si Hui joins us live. She is in Taipei.
So why did they decide to come together today?
Now it's really a last ditch effort to come together to form an opposition coalition before the final day of registration which is tomorrow.
And so all three opposition hopefuls came together.
We are talking about independent hopeful Mr. Terry Gou, the head of Taiwan People's Party Ko Wen Je, as well as Kuomintang's head Hou You Yi.
But it was a two-hour-long marathon conference which went kind of nowhere.
So there was no outcome after two hours which the conferences just ended two hours ago and they could not come to a consensus.
In fact, it was a very bitter atmosphere, both sides, both of the two main parties, TPP and KMT throwing hits at each other.
In fact, at one point of time, Mr. Terry Gou, who actually organized today's conference, he actually walked out of the meeting halfway,
because he said he could not understand why both sides did not seem to want to compromise.
He had actually booked a discussion room for TPP and KMT to discuss but KMT's head, which is Mr. Hou You Yi did not want to talk separately in a conference room.
He wanted to talk openly in front of the media and to come to a consensus.
Now, the main point of contention is the fact that neither TPP nor KMT want to compromise and they don't want to take up the vice presidential post.
Both of the leaders want to take up the top post, which is the presidential post.
So let's hear what the two candidates had to say.
(Speaking in Chinese) Since there is a stronger combination, why not choose the stronger one? What the Kuomintang wants today is not regime rotation.
You jsut want to take toaday's opportunity to expand the interests of political parties and personal interests.
We are a team and we are a group. This is not a knockout match. No matter what combination is within the margin of error, most polls show that the two sides are tied and will win against the ruling DPP.
So you can really hear the bitterness from both of these leaders and Mr. Terry Gou had in fact likened this to almost like a wedding reception that he hoped to bring the bride and groom together,
but it seemed that both sides don't want to talk to each other, they don't want to compromise.
So the coalition is at a stalemate, and this comes right after just last week when former President Ma Ying Jo had tried to bring both KMT and TPP together, but that had also stalled as well.
So Mr. Terry Gou stepped in and he wanted to try to broker an alliance, but this has also still resulted in a stalemate.
And so currently only DPP has officially registered at the election commission.
So what happens then if this political marriage, this coalition were to break down?
Well, DPP, which is the ruling Democratic Progressive party, it is currently ahead in opinion polls.
So if there is no coalition, that means that they stand a chance to continue with this big lead ahead of all of the other parties.
And so if there's no coalition, DPP really stands to possibly win big, but at this point of time, it's still too early to say.
But at the same time, we cannot rule out a coalition between Mr. Ke Wen Je of the TPP as well as independent hopeful Terry Gou.
This could possibly be an alliance as they have been talking for a number of days over the last few days.
So that is one alliance that we cannot rule out, but also at the legislative level,
all hope is not lost because the TPP, as well as the KMT have agreed to form a coalition at the legislative level so that they can win more seats at the parliament.
So this is currently where it is right now, but tomorrow is the final date for registration and we will be at the election commission to bring you the latest.
We look forward to that.
Si Hui, thank you very much for that.
Tan Si Hui there reporting for us live from Taipei.