The People First Party (PFP) yesterday repeated its reservations about the proposed merger of the three opposition parties, saying a two-way race would benefit the DPP.
"What the people really want is for rival parties to bury the hatchet and join forces to restore economic prosperity to the nation," PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said in Taipei County as he tried to drum up support for fellow legislative candidates.
"The candidates will not become better fighters simply because they put on blue [the color symbolizing the KMT] clothes."
Soong, who broke ranks with the KMT to run in last year's presidential race, said he welcomed inter-party cooperation but added that such ventures should be carried out without harming national security or ethnic harmony.
The tiny New Party, a splinter group of the KMT, has suggested the three opposition parties merge in a joint bid to contain the DPP's expansion in the Dec. 1 elections.
The move is widely considered a desperate step on the part of the ailing New Party to blur party lines in the hope of boosting its showing in the legislative polls.
Without roundly rejecting the proposal, Soong reassured supporters that the PFP opposes any policy that would permanently separate Taiwan from China or stoke ethnic divisions among the people.
"Immediate unification between Taiwan and China is unacceptable to the people here," Soong said.
Seeking to suppress rumors that the PFP may team up with the DPP in exchange for Cabinet posts after the elections, he emphasized that his party has no desire for any Cabinet berths and is thus not interested in reckless, unprincipled cooperation with other parties.
"A house, however beautiful, will soon get rundown if not cared for," Soong said, adding that it is the KMT that has made a united front impossible in the elections of local administrators.
Echoing the theme, PFP Deputy Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) warned against any attempts to peg the upcoming polls as a duel between the DPP and the opposition alliance.
Chin, who has been involved in electioneering for years, said that a one-on-one race will benefit the DPP, which polls an average of 30 percent of the votes in legislative elections.
A two-way race may help boost its performance to 35 percent or 40 percent at the polls, since swing voters may take sympathy with the DPP, Chin said.
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