Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) yesterday suggested he was “reasonably confident” that his party would pick up at least three mayoral seats on Saturday.
“We can’t be so unlucky as to lose all three closely fought seats,” Wu said, referring to Taipei and Sinbei cities and Greater Taichung as he commented on the eleventh-hour prospects of his party’s candidates at the polls. “If I were to bet, I’d say that we will pick up at least three seats … including at least one in northern Taiwan.”
With the legal ban on publicly discussing opinion polls in place 10 days before the elections, Wu refused to discuss the latest internal polls conducted by the party, but said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) “cannot say for sure that they will win for sure in any city.”
His optimism is the latest signal that the opposition party is heading into Saturday’s polls with high hopes, fresh from making almost clean sweeps in three local by-elections earlier this year.
Victories in this election, Wu suggested, would cement the DPP’s status as a party on the rise and reflect popular opposition to the government.
While the DPP is confident regarding its chances in Greater Tainan and the three-way race in Greater Kaohsiung, Wu said he would not write off Greater Taichung, where party candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) is facing the city’s incumbent mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).
Su, who he insisted had so far “exceeded expectations,” had fought a well-organized campaign, Wu said, and it was unlikely that there would be a large difference in votes between the two candidates.
“It’s basically the same situation now as the head-to-head races in Taipei and Sinbei cities,” Wu said.
He suggested that in the campaign to date it was evident that Hu had not been taking his re-election seriously and that many voters “would not accept a mayor who has remained in office for 13 years.”
While he said the DPP had no special plans in the run-up to Saturday, he did hint that the party would still likely focus its final efforts in Taipei and Sinbei.
“Regardless of the results, I think we’ve done all that we were supposed to do this election,” Wu said. “Soon, it will be out of our control and in the hands of the voters.”
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