Questions hang over wardens' role in society

The ability of the warden candidates has also been questioned.

Another poll that investigated borough-warden candidates capable of using the Internet revealed that nearly 50 percent of the candidates could not.

The poll also found that less than 80 current borough wardens among the 366 seeking re-election had updated the official Web sites for their designated communities.

Lee Shih-hsun (李世勛), executive director of the ROC's Information & Audiovisual Technology Association, which conducted the poll, said the wardens' ability to use the Internet affects the quality of service they provide.

"Taipei City is highly advanced in terms of Internet availability, and many of the city's policies are related to promoting Taipei as a cyber-based city. But the rank-and-file public officials were lacking the necessary computing skills, and that could be a great setback," Lee said.

"How are they going to provide a better and more efficient service if many of them don't use the Internet?" Lee asked.

It's not only young residents that are unclear about the duties of their wardens, senior citizens are also unsure about what exactly the the officials have contributed to their communities

"I don't know, [what they have done for us] ... I have lived in this borough for more than 10 years, but I have never received any service from the borough warden," said an elderly lady who runs a small breakfast stall at the Min-chao Borough, in Da-an district.

"The current warden doesn't even live in this borough, he just has his office here," she added, referring to Chang Lung-yan (張隆彥), who was recently branded by a competitor a "phantom borough warden" as he is registered as having a residence in the ward, but does not actually live there.

Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has promised to turn Taipei into a high-tech cyber city, defended the wardens' inability to use the Internet.

Ma said at a press briefing last Friday that "many of these ward wardens are very old, so it is to be expected that they are not good at using the Internet."

"But actually some of the boroughs I visited before had set up very comprehensive Web sites to enhance their service network, and compared with boroughs outside the city, Taipei's situation is better than the rest of the country," Ma said.

In response to the poll results that nearly 40 percent of the residents do not know whom their wardens are, Ma said, "It is good enough that 60 percent of them know."

Regarding the low level of understanding among young people about what borough wardens do, Ma said, "It is the young people who should be held accountable for the result."