The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday agreed to hold televised debates at the end of next month for the mayoral races in the November special municipality elections, although the details still need to be ironed out.
Ho Gwo-hwa (何國華), news department director of the Public Television Service Foundation, told reporters after a one-hour meeting that both the DPP and KMT had expressed “100 percent” interest and sincerity in holding the debates.
“They both agreed to hold the debates in response to public expectations,” he said.
A consensus was reached that the debates would be held at the end of next month and would be broadcast by the Public Television Service (PTS), he said, and the two parties agreed to meet again soon to discuss the exact dates, procedures and format.
While the last round of negotiations broke down amid disagreements over the format and who would be invited, Ho said there were no differences yesterday.
The plan, first announced in July, would have seen representatives from the nation’s four largest Chinese-language newspapers and the Central News Agency arrange the debate. However, the KMT and DPP could not agree on whether media representatives would be allowed to ask questions.
The DPP had originally hoped that only candidates would be allowed to question to the other participants in the debate, saying this was the “simplest method and also the fairest.”
For its part the KMT wanted some groups to be taken off the organizing team.
The special municipality elections will be held on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Sinbei City (the to-be-upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung city and county), Greater Tainan (Tainan city and county) and Greater Kaohsiung (Kaohsiung city and county).
Residents will elect mayors, city councilors and borough chiefs.
The debates would be the second major political exchange this year. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) debated the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in April on PTS.
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