DPP inaugurates 'locomotive' to launch campaign

Led by its chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), the ruling DPP yesterday inaugurated its "campaign locomotive," officially kicking off its legislative campaign drive with a nationwide tour.

Accompanied by 10 DPP legislative candidates from Taipei City, Hsieh yesterday promised to continue to fight for the party's political ideals.

"The DPP, which has long been a locomotive in pushing forward environmental, labors, anti-nuclear and students' movements, will continue as a political force to help the country progress," Hsieh told the crowd. Hsieh said that he would ride the "locomotive" over the remaining nine campaign days stumping for DPP candidates.

Hsieh also took the opportunity to announce the results of the DPP's latest opinion poll, which showed that the party running neck and neck with its main rival, the KMT.

"The poll estimates that both the DPP and the KMT could secure around 84 legislative seats each and that the People First Party (PFP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) will muster 35 to 37 seats and 10 seats respectively," Hsieh told a press conference.

Hsieh also said that "victory will be decided by a margin of about three seats" between the KMT and the DPP.

In terms of overall popularity, Hsieh said that the DPP is leading the KMT by about three percentage points, saying that the two parties garnered 34 percent and 31 percent respectively among respondents who intend to vote.

The poll also found that the PFP's support, heavily dependent on the popularity of its chairman, James Soong (宋楚瑜), has dropped to 16.5 percent while that of the TSU has surpassed the 5 percent threshold.

The poll also indicates that the New Party will likely keep four seats with 4 percent of the overall vote and that approximately 10 independent candidates would be elected with the support of 10.5 percent of voters.

Hsieh said that the DPP expects to win 12 seats in local government races while the party is still facing an uphill battle in Taoyuan County, Hualien County and Hsinchu and Taichung Cities.

Hsieh, therefore, reiterated that the party would employ the strategy for vote allocation to evenly distribute votes among candidates so that its overall legislative seats would be hopefully maximized.