TAIPEI, Dec 14 — Police in southern Taiwan shot a man today suspected of planting a possible explosive device outside a campaign office for the island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, the official Central News Agency reported.

Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on January 11, and campaigning is in full swing with the Kuomintang challenging the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of President Tsai Ing-wen, who is currently far ahead in the polls.

The device, planted outside the entrance to a Kuomintang office in Tainan city, contain wires, liquid and powder, the report said.

Police tracked a suspect, a man with the family name Wu, to the neighbouring city of Kaohsiung and after a lengthy stand-off stormed a building and shot the man, who was taken to hospital, it said.

Taiwan elections are passionate, noisy affairs, but generally pass off peacefully.

In 2004, then-president Chen Shui-bian of the DPP won re-election by a thin margin after a bullet grazed him and his running mate at a campaign event. The Kuomintang said at the time that incident was staged to win votes.

The Kuomintang favours close ties with China, which considers Taiwan to be merely a Chinese province and claims it as its sacred territory. The DPP favours the island’s formal independence. — Reuters