TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) opposes the abolition of the death penalty and will continue to carry out executions if elected president, his campaign office said on Monday (Aug. 14).

Hou's office was responding to Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruling on Monday, which said 38 prisoners sentenced to death in the country are currently involved in legal action (related to their sentence or otherwise), and according to law, they cannot be executed until these legal processes are complete. The court made this judgment based on Article 16 of the country’s constitution, which guarantees the right to legal process.

“When Hou You-ih becomes president, he will definitely resume executions in accordance with the law,” Hou's campaign office said, per Mirror Media. Hou’s office added, “Petitioning for constitutional interpretation has become an endless lifesaving mechanism (保命符) for death row prisoners, and a pause in the justice system.”

Hou’s office said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should be stopped from finding reasons to “kill the death penalty,” and that sentences should be carried out according to law. The office also said that the death penalty is constitutional, fair, and in line with justice and the expectations of society.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has previously said that “abolishing the death penalty is a universal goal,” and other DPP members have expressed opposition to the sentence, though not as emphatically as Tsai. Despite that, a survey released in September 2022 showed that just under 87% of Taiwanese polled opposed the abolition of the death penalty.