Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"Local people are fed up with distasteful campaign gimmicks," Ma said, adding he hoped the presidential candidates from both the pan-green camp and the pan-blue alliance could exercise self-restraint on the campaign trail.
Ma, who is concurrently serving as secretary-general of the campaign headquarters of the pan-blue presidential ticket of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), made the call after the rival camps traded accusations and libel suits in recent days.
Claiming that few who resort to negative campaigning had succeeded in elections either at home or abroad, Ma said he didn't think mud-slinging would prove effective in the March 20 poll.
Ma, who is also KMT vice chairman, said he had urged the pan-blue alliance to cease negative campaigning during a recent meeting at the alliance's campaign headquarters.
He also called on the pan-green camp, headed by the Democratic Progressive Party, to halt what he described as a smear campaign against Lien.
"Both candidates should focus on policy debate. Each side should present policy initiatives and outline its vision for Taiwan's future development instead of slandering each other," Ma said, adding that those obsessed with negative campaigning would lose support.
Ma's appeal came after President Chen Shui-bian's (
Recent opinion polls show that Chen and Lien are running neck and neck. A local newspaper yesterday said that Chen and Lien were level in a major survey of voters.
Both candidates received support of 35 percent from those polled, the China Times said. The remainder were undecided.
Chen's support dropped one percentage point while Lien's support rose one percentage point from a week earlier, the newspaper said.
About 29 percent of respondents said they could not tell which side's allegation was more convincing, and 30 percent said they believed neither side, it said.
Only 15 percent said they believed Chen's allegations, and 12 percent believed Lien's accusations. Another 12 percent said both sides were culpable, while the rest gave no opinion.
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