As Saturday's elections approach, Kaohsiung mayoral candidates are busy putting their spin on the latest poll results and visiting the local prosecutors' office to file lawsuits against their opponents.
In a televised debate held by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Saturday, candidates downplayed the impact of recent swings in the polls.
After PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) announced his support for the KMT's Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英) on Thursday, several polls show a dramatic rise in the KMT candidate's popularity such that he now threatens DPP rival and incumbent mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
"Recent polls show that my popularity has become close to that of Mr. Hsieh but the margin is still narrow," Huang said in his opening remark at the debate.
Despite polls by three media organizations showing that he has overtaken Hsieh, Huang is urging caution and telling supporters to keep on their toes.
The polls, carried out and published after Soong's endorsement on Thursday, reveal a tight race.
The China Times poll puts support for Huang at 35 percent and Hsieh's at 32. A TVBS poll puts Huang ahead with 45 percent support and Hsieh coming in with 33 percent, while the United Daily has Huang and Hsieh with 35 percent and 34 percent support, respectively.
A poll by the DPP, however, puts Hsieh ahead of Huang by a 10 percent margin.
Independent candidates Shih Ming-te (
"The poll results could have been manipulated or fabricated," said Shih, a former DPP chairman.
Shih added that he felt sad because few people understand the importance of opening up Kaohsiung to make it a port city of commerce and trade.
"I'm alone; lonely, but correct," Shih said.
Chang said opinion polls cannot be trusted.
"Otherwise we don't need to vote. We could just have the CEC to carry out several polls and let the outcome determine who is elected to office," she said.
Beginning in September, Chang said, major parties began to manipulate polls in a bid to discourage opponents.
"That has obviously violated the Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法). I suggest that the CEC investigate political parties' deliberate involvement in polling immediately," Chang said.
Chang, who had expected the backing of the PFP and had sought collaboration with Huang and Shih, now says that "the non-party [group of independents] is the biggest party."
Hsieh did not address the poll issue in his speech at the televised debate, but he said on Friday that collaboration between pan-blue parties in Kaohsiung was in preparation for the 2004 presidential election.
"Such insincere collaboration will halt the city's development for at least two years. It's not fair to Kaohsiung residents," Hsieh said.
The DPP candidate's campaign has targeted Huang by accusing him of being involved in a scam when he served as deputy Kaohsiung mayor four years ago.
Hsieh said that Huang and then KMT mayor Wu Den-yi (
Huang, however, said the act of the then KMT city government was legal and that what led to the scandal was the actions of the Hsieh administration.
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