Chang Po-ya pulls out of pan-blue bid

Independent hopeful Chang Po-ya (張博雅) said late Wednesday night she would not seek a nomination from the opposition alliance for the Kaohsiung mayoral post but vowed to wage her own campaign.

The decision caught both the KMT and PFP off guard yesterday as the former pledged to continue consolidating the opposition forces and the latter put a temporary stop to cross-party negotiations.

The development also prompted the KMT to call off an opinion poll originally agreed upon by all parties to settle who may run on behalf of the pan-blue camp against incumbent DPP Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

Chang, the former interior minister, who has the backing of the PFP, issued a statement at 11:30pm Wednesday saying she would withdraw from the pan-blue effort to mount a united front for the December elections.

"Because I am suspicious of the selection mechanisms, I've decided to call it quits," she said in the statement. "But I will continue fighting for the opportunity to serve Kaohsiung residents."

Chang singled out KMT organization official James Chen (陳健治) for criticism, accusing him of mobilizing a campaign against her in violation of the "no attack" rule.

She noted that the party's Kaohsiung chapter planned to stage an anti-Chang march last Saturday, which was later moved to an indoor venue after her supporters protested.

"Chen cannot be trusted to handle the survey," Chang told reporters at her campaign headquarters yesterday.

The independent contender also questioned the merits of conducting a poll, noting that pro-DPP radio stations have urged their audiences to fake support for KMT aspirant Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英) when they are interviewed.

Recent surveys show that Chang, previously the frontrunner of the opposition pool, trails behind Huang, while Hsieh enjoys a comfortable lead regardless of who the challenger is.

"The DPP's dividing tactic has ruined the validity of the opinion poll," she insisted. "Not until the vote on Dec. 7 will the strength of individual candidates be truthfully assessed."

Chang's decision has the pan-blue camp debating what it will do in a joint bid to win the southern port city.

KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) told reporters at an emergency news conference that his party regrets the development, which he hoped would not influence his party's cooperation with the PFP.

"The KMT will not give up a chance of uniting the opposition forces in the election for Kaohsiung mayor," Tsai said. He added the party would call off the planned opinion survey now that the cross-party venture has come to a halt.

His colleague James Chen cried foul over accusations of unfair play.

He denied any role in the picking of polling companies, saying they were jointly picked by the KMT, the PFP and Chang herself during an earlier meeting.

"It is true I will be in charge of signing the contract with the pollsters," Chen said. "But there is no evidence to suggest I would have manipulated the outcome of the survey."

He urged the PFP to throw its support behind the KMT nominee, noting that Chang does not belong to the opposition camp in the first place.

However, the PFP said it would temporarily shut down bipartisan negotiations until the KMT stifles party resistance to the coordinating effort.

"A few defiant KMT officials have been seeking to spoil the coordinating mechanism," PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉) said. "The PFP is sympathetic to the predicament Chang has been through of late."