Eric Chu was chosen as a new candidate of the Kuomintang for Taiwan's presidential election in January. However, it seems difficult for the ruling party to win the election./ Source from search engine Baidu

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) has decided to replace its presidential candidate ahead of 2016 presidential elections on January 16, but the outlook remains cloudy. Looking at the current atmosphere, the victory seems to have gone up in smoke.

According to sources familiar with Taiwanese affairs on Tuesday, the KMT dropped its candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (67) and replaced to Xinbei mayor Eric Chu (54) at an emergency congress on October 17. The KMT's unusual step reflected pessimism about Ms. Hung's chances following a series of poor ratings in opinion polls against opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen (59). Such decision showed the KMT's strong will to take victory in the upcoming election.

However, the outlook remains cloudy for the KMT. Above all, Chu's participation in the election seems too late. The overwhelming view is that it's hard for Eric Chu to beat Tsai in less than 100 days before the presidential elections. Besides, Tsai had put up a good fight in the previous presidential elections with a strong competitive edge. Things got worse as Ms. Hung resigned with humiliation. Besides, Eric Chu had previously made a promise not to run for president and now he has to go back.

Of course, miracles happen. The KMT hopes that Chu wins the battle once again against Tsai just like he did in the mayoral election in 2010. However, a presidential election is basically different with a mayoral election. It seems not an exaggeration that the KMT and Chu are on the ropes.