Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said Thursday that he intends to seek nomiation of the ruling Kuomintang for the post of mayor of the Taichung special municipality that will be made by merging Taichung City and Taichung County. Taiwan is scheduled to hold year-end mayoral elections in five special municipalities -- Taipei City and four others that will be created by upgrading Taipei County and renaming it Xinbei City, and merging Taichung City with Taichung County, Tainan City with Tainan County, and Kaohsiung City with Kaohsiung County. 'Running in Taichung has always been my first and only choice, ' said Hu after a meeting with KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsang on the elections. Hu is widely regarded as a KMT stalwart and has been encouraged by many in the party to run in Kaohsiung rather than Taichung. For his part, King praised Hu as an excellent politician and said his party will immediately begin its coordination and recruitment process to pick the KMT candidate for the Taichung race. Earlier in the day, Taichung Deputy Magistrate Chang Chung-hsi said he would not rule out the possibility of seeking the KMT's nomination to run for the Taichung mayoral post. The five municipality elections are regarded as crucial to Taiwan's 2012 presidential elections. Former Premier Su Tseng-chang of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced a day earlier his decision to run in Taipei City. Neither the KMT nor the DPP have yet officially nominated any candidates for the elections. 