Lien camp says the campaign is a two-way race

According to the KMT campaign office yesterday it is a two-way race for the presidency.

On the first day of the officially sanctioned election campaign period, members of presidential candidate Lien Chan's (連戰) camp yesterday disclosed their campaign strategy for the remaining 27 days until the March 18 election.

And Lien's campaign manager, Jason Hu (胡志強) put forward his theory that the KMT and DPP parties were the only real contenders for the country's presidency.

Although yesterday officially marked the start of the presidential race, it actually represents the final stage in a campaign already several months long, and is therefore symbolically significant for all the candidates.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Hu outlined three guiding principles for the last month of campaigning, the first of which he said was to "correctly seize the reality of the situation -- that the race is a two party one."

"After careful assessment of the present circumstances, we believe it is an objective fact rather than a subjective interpretation that the race is moving toward a contest between two parties -- namely, the KMT's Lien Chan and DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)," Hu said.

Hu said the second principle of the final stage of the campaign was getting voters out in numbers.

"Mobilization of votes through various organizations has been the KMT's most powerful weapon in elections. We have to ensure mobilization reaches the nerve ends," he said.

Hu's third principle concerned campaign information, which he said needed to emphasize that this presidential election would have a more profound effect on the nation than any previous election.

Hu said that voters were often primarily attracted by the charisma or personal characteristics of a candidate, but that in a presidential election voters should be particularly careful in scrutinizing the candidate's policies.

Hu said that he believed Lien would likely win once the party had carried out its work on its"three elements" or guidelines.

When asked for his comments on the fact Lien has consistenly been the least popular candidate among the three hopefuls in polls over the past several months, Hu said that Lien's camp remained confident nevertheless.