TAIPEI (Reuters) - Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, has collected three times the amount of signatures needed to qualify to run in Taiwan's presidential elections, the government said on Tuesday.

In a statement, Gou thanked his backers for their "enthusiastic support" and vowed to work hard to achieve "peace across the Taiwan Strait".

Gou announced his bid in August, saying he wanted to unite the opposition and ensure the island did not become "the next Ukraine", blaming the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for taking Taiwan to the brink of war by antagonising China which claims the island as its own territory.

Gou, who stepped down as Foxconn chief in 2019, had to gather around 300,000 voter signatures by Nov. 2 to qualify as an independent candidate, according election regulations.

The election commission said he got more than 900,000 valid signatures.

Gou, 73, is one of four candidates in the election. Opinion polls show he is the least favoured candidate, well behind front-runner, Lai Ching-te of the DPP and who is currently vice president.

(Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Yimou Lee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Miral Fahmy)