An agreement on scheduling the first televised debates in the history of Taiwanese presidential politics was reached yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance.
Two debates between the presidential candidates -- President Chen Shui-bian (
The afternoon of Feb. 21 had originally been set aside by the Central Election Commission for the presidential candidates to elaborate on their platforms, but the pan-blue and pan-green camps have decided to skip this event in order to make room for one of the two debates.
The two sides agreed that the topic of the debates would be national policies. This broad topic was agreed upon after the two sides failed to come to terms on more specific topics.
According to the agreement, anything relating to the topic can be discussed, including the upcoming referendum.
Each debate will be divided into four sections.
In the first section, each candidate will have eight minutes in which to speak about his vision of the country's future.
In the second section, five questioners will ask the candidates about their platforms.
In the third section, the candidates will be able to pose questions to one another.
In the final section, the candidates will each have eight minutes in which to make a concluding statement.
The moderator of the debate and the individuals who will ask questions of the candidates will be selected by the debate's co-sponsors -- based on the principles of professionalism and impartiality. Both camps will be consulted before the choices for moderator and questioners are finalized.
The debate's co-sponsors are the Taipei Society (
The agreement was reached yesterday when representatives from the DPP, the KMT-PFP alliance and the debate's co-sponsors resumed earlier negotiations that had been abandoned when the DPP refused to participate due to the absence from the negotiations of Taipei Mayor and pan-blue campaign manager Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The DPP said that the pan-blue camp had not demonstrated good faith because it had sent to the negotiations three representatives whose stature was not commensurate with that of the DPP's representatives.
At yesterday's negotiating session the pan-blue alliance was represented by Ma, KMT policy convener Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), KMT Legislator Yu Tzu-shiang (游梓翔) and PFP caucus leader Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).
The DPP was represented by its national campaign chief Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), Taipei County Commissioner and DPP campaign manager Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and legislators Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉).
During yesterday's negotiations, the pan-blue camp originally proposed holding only one televised debate, concentrating on economic issues.
The DPP proposed holding at least four debates, concentrating on national development, political reform, economics and social welfare.
In the end the parties agreed to two debates organized around the broad topic of national policies.
"Although we are not satisfied with the result, we can accept it," Su said.
"We still hope that there is a possibility for more televised debates." Su said.
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