Candidates for the Dec. 7 mayoral and councilor elections in Taiwan's two biggest cities began the official registration process yesterday, with the incumbent heads of both Taipei and Kaohsiung cities signing up for the race, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Incumbent Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT announced his candidacy by filing documents with the city's election committee. He also presented a deposit of NT$2 million (US$57,142) to the committee as required by law.
Ma said that he is confident about winning the election, although the ruling DPP has gone all out to support his rival, Lee Ying-yuan (
"I am not facing just one rival candidate," Ma said. "Both the incumbent and former presidents are expected to besiege me," he added, referring to plans by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to stump for his opponent.
The younger Lee stumped for the DPP's candidates for Taipei councilors yesterday and is scheduled to register today.
Meanwhile, incumbent Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the DPP also went through the registration procedures yesterday.
Flanked by hundreds of supporters, Hsieh presented the necessary paperwork to the city's election committee, saying that he is seeking a second term out of gratitude for his constituents.
Ma, a political superstar in Taiwan, is favored for his clean-cut image and now leads by a comfortable margin in most opinion polls.
About 69 percent of the Taipei voters polled in a survey released yesterday said that they are satisfied with Ma's performance over the past four years.
The telephone poll of more than 3,000 eligible voters found that 26.36 percent of the respondents were "very satisfied" with Ma's performance while 42.42 percent were "somewhat satisfied" with him.
The results of the poll -- conducted by Shih Hsin University (
According to the poll, a total of 56.6 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Ma, if the Taipei mayoral election were held the next day. By comparison, 15.44 percent said that they would vote for Lee, a technocrat pitched by Chen for the race.
Although enjoying an approval rate of 68.78 percent in the survey, Ma said that he faces a bigger challenge than he did four years ago, because his task is not only winning the race but also turning the city into an international metropolis.
In Kaohsiung, Hsieh is leading in the race as opposition votes are split between former interior minister Chang Po-ya (
A total of 31 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for Hsieh, if the Kaohsiung mayoral election were held the next day.
Chang is currently at the second place while Huang is at the third place.
A total of 3,722 valid responses were obtained in the survey, which had a margin of error of 1.61 percent.
RSS