Soong, on the other hand, urged the KMT to place Taipei residents' concerns first, rather than considering only the political issues in the campaign.
"The KMT should find the best candidate to compete with Frank Hsieh. Can a former minister of the Environmental Protection Administration compare with a former premier?," he said yesterday.
Claiming that there is still room for KMT-PFP negotiations in the election, Soong said he is willing to debate municipal policies with Hau.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmakers yesterday asked Hau to withdraw from the election over telling lies to cover his and his father's wrongdoings.
Hau has been under fire over corruption allegations, while DPP lawmakers charge that his father was illegally occupying a public dormitory and had used public money to pay his telephone, water and electrical bills for more than 10 years.
At one time, retired premiers were allowed to apply for subsidies for their utility bills, but the privilege was canceled last month due to the lack of a legal basis.
Rebutting the allegations, Hau Lung-bin said that the dormitory, allotted to his father when he served as minister of national defense, was returned to the ministry in June and that he has paid his water and electric bills since.
However, DPP legislators Kuan Bi-ling (
"According to the Ministry of National Defense's documentation, Hau Pei-tsun returned the key of the dormitory on Oct. 6, the day we disclosed his occupation of the house, not in June," Hsu said.
Regarding the bills, Kuan said Hau Lung-bin has been using "No. 315 Fulin Road" as his mailing address for more than 20 years and the water and electric bills for the house have been paid for with government money.
Hau Lung-bin reiterated yesterday that his father has been paying the water and electric bills and urged the DPP not to spread rumors to win elections.
He said that the preferential treatment his father had previously received was in accordance with the regulations and had been approved by the DPP government, "including former premier Frank Hsieh" (
Hsieh challenged Hau Lung-bin to make public the receipts for his father's utility bills.
DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun and Hsieh also questioned the KMT campaign's honesty.
Yu said in a campaign event yesterday that although Tang Fei (唐飛), Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and he were entitled, as former premiers, to government benefits such as drivers and utility discounts, none of them actually took advantage of the privilege as Hau Pei-tsun did.
"This is a KMT privilege," the DPP chairman said. "It seems that the DPP is cleaner than the KMT [in this regard]."
Hsieh mentioned in another event that when he was running for Kaohsiung mayor in 2002, his KMT rival spent more than 90 percent of the mayoral special allowance on rewarding campaign staff without requesting any receipts from campaign members.
Hsieh also said he chose not to enjoy government advantages as a former premier in order to "contribute to public welfare."
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