A Friday night meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) continued to spark intense speculation over the possible impact on Saturday's polls.
At the heart of the conjecturing was the possible "dump-save effect" among pan-blue supporters.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers continued to interpret the meeting as evidence of a scheme by Ma to "dump" KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and get Soong elected, which they said would benefit Ma for the 2008 presidential election.
"The Ma-Soong meeting proved that abandoning Hau and saving Soong has become the KMT's key strategy," DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said.
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that Ma could "kill two birds with one stone" by helping Soong win on Saturday -- to divide the DPP and to unite the pan-blue camp ahead of next year's legislative election and the presidential election the following year.
Hsu referred to the division within the DPP over Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) promise that he would quit the party and join in the campaign to force President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to step down should Soong beat him.
Since Taipei is largely seen as a pan-blue city, the DPP's interpretation was seen as a strategy to help Soong draw votes from front-runner Hau and boost Hsieh's chances.
However, an anonymous lawmaker said that KMT Vice Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
"As Soong remains far behind Hau in the polls, it's hard to believe the party would ask pan-blue supporters to dump Hau and save Soong. Ma will show the party is for Hau in the final week," he said.
KMT spokesman Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) would not comment directly on voting strategy but said that experience has shown that a front-runner will not be the one to be abandoned by supporters if a "dump-save tactic" is used.
The PFP also made every effort to refute interpretations of Friday's meeting by the DPP or by the KMT.
PFP Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
"Ma and Soong met on Oct. 14 and Nov. 3 to talk about forming an alliance between two parties after the election. The latest meeting [last Friday] was supposed to take place on Nov. 30. It also focused on the alliance," Chang said.
The lawmaker said that Ma and Soong had agreed that their two parties would coordinate before nominating candidates for next year's legislative elections.
"Soong didn't make offers to Ma in exchange for the KMT's support, as the DPP has claimed," he said.
The PFP also accused Hsieh of using "government intelligence agencies" to obtain the pictures of Ma and Soong's meeting site.
Hsieh denied the accusation and said he would quit politics if anyone could prove otherwise.
Later yesterday, Soong told a press conference that Friday's meeting had been Ma's idea.
"I felt the meeting was a `set-up,'" Soong said, referring to the rumors that the KMT's voting strategy was to encourage pan-blue supporters to vote for Hau.
Ma said yesterday that he didn't discuss Saturday's election at the Friday meeting, but he refused to reveal details of his conversation with Soong.
also see story:
Editorial: Ma blunder could cost Hau dear
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS