Blue camp cagey on campaign team

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) presidential campaign is taking shape with senior party officials ready to take up pivotal strategic roles.

The KMT-PFP alliance, hoping to boost the visibility of its candidates, KMT Party Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), will begin a series of large-scale campaign rallies around the country in the run-up to the election.

While neither the KMT nor the PFP would confirm the names of the alliance's key strategists, media commentators are speculating that KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) and his PFP counterpart Tsai Chung-hsiung (蔡鐘雄), as well as legislator and KMT policy committee convenor Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) are expected to take up the most important roles in the campaign.

Following last Saturday's rally in Tainan, another big campaign rally will be held in Kaohsiung County this Saturday by the alliance.

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a native of Kaohsiung County, is scheduled to speak at the rally, where he is widely expected to use the occasion to formally announce that he will accept the post of campaign director.

One question that has attracted considerable interest is whether Taipei Mayor and KMT Vice Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), one of the KMT's most popular officials, will be provided with a substantial role in the campaign.

"Ma is an outstanding member of the KMT. He would certainly be trusted to play an important role in the alliance's campaign," said KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元), without elaborating further.

On Sunday, the 109th anniversary of the founding of the KMT, the alliance will opt for an unusual form of celebration, staging a group wedding for 109 couples from around the country.

The event will be held simultaneously in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung with a satellite link-up. High-profile pan-blue officials including Lien, Soong, Wang, PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄), Ma and KMT Vice Chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) will preside over the ceremony from one of the three centers.

Further campaign rallies will be held in Taoyuan on Nov. 29 and at the CKS Memorial on Dec. 7, the latter of which will also launch the Lien-Soong campaign headquarters.