Hsieh says pan-blues will dump Hau

A staffer in Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh's campaign headquarters points to a photo of a Renai Road building where Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou and People First Party Chairman James Soong reportedly met on Friday evening. The building is located across the street from the Howard Plaza Hotel. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) sought to exploit a rift between two of his rivals yesterday in an effort to shore up his election chances.

Hsieh said that the leaders of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) met in an effort to undermine the bid of his KMT rival Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) -- who is running for mayor as an independent -- met secretly on Friday night to discuss "abandoning KMT candidate Hau Lung-bin and saving Soong" in a bid to defeat him in Saturday's elections, Hsieh told a press conference.

Presenting photographs that he said backed his claim, Hsieh said an informant told him that Ma and Soong met at a certain location on Renai Road, Sec 3, between 10pm on Friday and 2am on Saturday.

Hseih did not reveal the identity of his informant.

"They met [with the aim] to surprise me by winning more ballots than me in the election, so that I would have to withdraw from the DPP," he said, adding that campaign banners that read "Help Ma get into the Presidential Office and help Soong get into the city government" appeared on streets after the meeting.

Hsieh issued a challenge to Soong last month, saying that if Soong won more votes, he would support a call for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to resign and he would withdraw from the DPP.

"Hau's weakness is that he does not enjoy high status in the KMT," Hsieh said.

He said that during the meeting Ma had apologized to Soong for the negative campaign against him that had been produced by the KMT's Taipei branch.

Soong was reluctant to respond to reporters' questions about the alleged meeting yesterday. He would only say that the PFP stands firm on its position of cooperating with the KMT.

He said he had no idea where the story of the meeting originated.

"If elected mayor of Taipei, I promise to do my best to serve Taipei residents and support the KMT to win back power in the 2008 presidential election," he said.

Ma at first refused to comment on the alleged meeting as he campaigned for KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英) yesterday.

KMT spokesman Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) denied reports that Ma and Soong had met for four hours on Friday, saying no such meeting had taken place.

"As Soong appears determined to run until the end in the Taipei mayoral race, it is impossible for the KMT to ask him to withdraw from the race," Huang said.

"The two parties are engaged in a gentlemen's race and they will not make any deal in exchange for Soong's withdrawal from the Taipei election," he said.

However, Ma later admitted that the meeting had taken place and that it lasted three hours. But he refused to say what he and Soong had discussed.

Huang said the two parties have discussed the Taipei mayoral race because both have their own candidate. He also denied that the KMT and PFP had ever talked about give-and-take conditions.

Before attending a televised debate between Taipei mayoral candidates yesterday, Hau said there was no question of the KMT abandoning him.

"I am a candidate who was elected through the KMT's democratic [nomination] mechanism, so there's no such thing as abandoning who and saving who," Hau said.

"The only issue is for me to do my best and win the election, which was the consensus between Ma and me," he said.