King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), executive director of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign office, yesterday denied exerting pressure on Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) to throw his support behind Ma’s re-election bid instead of People First Party (PFP) presidential candidate James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) campaign ahead of the presidential election on Saturday next week.
A report in the Chinese--language Next Magazine said yesterday that King asked Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee member Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) to meet with Fu, a former PFP member, last month and urge him to abandon his support for Soong and to campaign for Ma instead.
King denied Next Magazine’s allegation in a written statement and said he never made such an attempt, accusing the magazine of fabricating the story.
Fu was tight-lipped when pressed by reporters for a response on his reported switch of support from Soong to Ma. He had helped collect signatures for Soong’s presidential bid, PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉) said in October last year.
Commenting on the Next Magazine report, Soong, saying “voting rests not in the hands of one particular individual, but those of all voters,” called on the public to be their own masters and vote for him because he was competent and would get things done.
In response to a press query on whether Fu’s support for Ma would impact his electoral outlook, Soong said that as of now, he has not heard of anyone whose particular endorsement would have such a big effect as to sway the outcome of the election.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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