Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday urged young voters to try to convince their parents to vote for him on Saturday, as he has more support among the younger generation.
With just days to go until the election, Ko not only called on young people — who are more supportive of him, yet usually have a lower turnout — to vote, but also urged them to talk their parents into voting for him, as he has a lower support rating among older voters.
“I would like to call on young voters to actually go to polling stations on Saturday to cast their votes, since I enjoy more support among the younger generation,” Ko told a press conference at his campaign headquarters.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“However, besides casting their votes for me, I would like to urge young voters to also convince their parents to vote for me,” Ko told reporters.
Ko said his young supporters could send text or Line messages to their parents, “but I guess it’s not that easy to persuade your parents, so you could spend some time chatting with your parents, have meals with them, watch TV with them, and you could also help them with the household chores.”
Ko said that, in modern society, children and their parents often do not communicate very well or lack the opportunity to spend quality time together and therefore, trying to convince their parents to vote for him would be a good way to enhance relationships between parents and their children.
“As I said, my objective in running in the election is to change the culture and this is a good way to make a change,” he said.
Explaining why he has more support among the younger generation, Ko said it could be because he did not employ the traditional campaign strategy of buying ads in traditional media outlets.
“Young people obtain their information from the Internet, but the older generation still rely heavily on traditional media outlets,” Ko said. “Although I have had much media coverage and exposure, it may not be comparable to placing paid ads or paying for news articles.”
Several of Ko’s young supporters attended the press conference and showed the Line conversations they have had with their parents in their attempts to persuade them to vote for Ko.
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