After a string of scandals, the head of Taiwan's third-largest party, Ko Wen-je, is stepping down temporarily. Announcing his decision, he bowed to journalists and apologized to supporters for betraying their trust.
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00:00The founder and chair of Taiwan's third-largest political party, Ke Wenze, is stepping aside
00:06temporarily after a string of scandals.
00:09He apologized for betraying the trust of supporters and says he will reflect on his actions.
00:15Louise Watt is following this story for us from Taipei.
00:17Louise, does this mean the end of Ke's career and his party?
00:22Well, Leslie, since the scandals broke, there's been a feeling that this is the beginning
00:29of the end for the Taiwan People's Party.
00:33Ke has been trying to save the party that he built and shaped in his own image.
00:39This afternoon he held a press conference at which he bowed in apology and announced
00:44that he would be taking a three-month leave of absence as head of the party.
00:50He said that was to give the TPP time for a proper investigation and also for him to
00:55reflect on his actions and whether he could lead the party in the future.
01:01Now, Ke is one of the best-known politicians in Taiwan.
01:06He was Taipei mayor and he ran for president in January's elections.
01:11A three-month leave of absence is not a long time and it's unlikely to signal the end of
01:18his political career.
01:19But there's no doubt that his party has been wounded by this.
01:23The TPP ran on a platform promising clean politics and now they've been embroiled in
01:29allegations of corruption.
01:31Ke himself has admitted to using campaign funds to buy office space for his own personal
01:38use.
01:39But even before all of this broke, the TPP had been losing its political power, the kind
01:46of political power that propelled it to win enough seats in January's elections to hold
01:51the balance of power in the legislature.
01:54Since then, it's aligned itself with the main opposition party, the KMT, so that's caused
01:59it to lose a lot of its support.
02:02So can the TPP bounce back from all its troubles?
02:07It's got a lot of making up to do with its supporters.