With less than a week before polling, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweights were busy yesterday criss-crossing the nation to drum up support for their candidates.
Campaigning yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also serves as KMT chairman, said he would see to it that electrification of the Hualien-Taitung railway line is completed within five years.
Ma visited Hualien County in the morning to campaign for Hualien County commissioner candidate Tu Li-hua (杜麗華), vowing to start electrification of the railway line next week.
“This was part of my campaign platform two years ago during the presidential campaign. This is not a promise made to win this election,” Ma said yesterday when campaigning for Tu in Hualien.
Electrification of the Hualien-Taitung railway service was one of the 12 “i-Taiwan” projects Ma proposed in 2007.
Currently, passengers going from Taipei to Taitung must switch to diesel-powered trains in Hualien, with the exception of those traveling by diesel-powered Tzuchiang express trains.
Electrifying the line would also involve the installation of a double-track system on some sections, including inside tunnels and on bridges.
“We have freeways and the high-speed rail in western Taiwan, but there are no freeways in Eastern Taiwan. We need to strengthen transportation construction and give people in Hualien a safe way home,” Ma said.
Ma later led party officials and Central Standing Committee (CSC) members to campaign in Chiayi County for party candidate Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞).
Ma lauded the government’s efforts to improve the economy, saying that leading economic indicators had flashed a green light last month.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said the nation’s economic indicators last month measured 28 points. That marked the first economic green light in 18 months and indicated an end to the previous “yellow-blue light” that showed the economy was in transition from a slowdown to growth.
“The situation is expected to get better next year, and this shows that our efforts have paid off,” he said at the CSC meeting in Chiayi.
A group of pan-green supporters gathered outside the venue to protest against Ma, urging him to take responsibility for quoting an opinion poll on the Yilan County commissioner election in violation of election regulations.
“Ma Ying-jeou step down!” protesters shouted as they condemned Ma for apparently violating the Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法) by revealing the result of an opinion poll within 10 days of the election, which is against the law.
The KMT later held a campaign party for Chiayi Mayor Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) as she seeks re-election, with Ma accompanying Huang to canvass the streets of Chiayi to attract support.
Meanwhile, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged all pan-green supporters to stand united behind the party nominees to defeat the KMT.
Speaking at a rally in Yunlin County, Tsai thanked the southern county for getting the party off to a great start by electing Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) in the legislative by-election in September.
Green governance in Yunlin must not stop there, she said, calling on voters to vote green in all other races in the county, including for Douliou mayoral candidate Chang Chung-ming (張聰明), who jumped ship from the KMT just 10 days ago.
“The KMT has no positive accomplishments to show and therefore they must resort to vote-buying. The DPP’s platform of focusing on local industry and agriculture will certainly appeal to constituents,” said Tsai, asking supporters to help write a new chapter in the country’s history.
Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) is vying for re-election against the KMT’s Wu Wei-chih (吳威志), an academic who criticized Su for being “arrogant” after she said that Yunlin would be an easy win for the DPP because of all the mistakes Ma made since he came to office.
One of Wu’s platforms includes providing orange juice for all schoolchildren in the county to reduce the county’s orange surplus.
In Yilan County, DPP commissioner candidate Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢), who hopes to unseat Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華), is pulling all stops to woo young voters by inviting the lead singer of Taiwan’s black metal band Chthonic, Freddy Lim (林昶佐), to stump for votes.
Lin called on the estimated 50,000 eligible voters from Yilan County who live outside the county to “come back home.”
During the 24 years of DPP leadership, he said, Yilan residents were determined to safeguard democracy, protect the environment, resist a party-state system and reject special interest groups.
“In the past four years, the glories of Yilan have faded. Many people who live outside the county worry about the families they left behind,” he said, accusing Lu of running the county into the ground by implementing a string of failed policies such as canceling the annual Yilan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgame Festival, started by former DPP Premier Yu Shyi-kun when he served as county chief in 1996.
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