The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must develop new campaign issues after the Lunar New Year to maintain momentum instead of just sticking to President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Though the DPP and President Chen continue to dominate the campaign as well as the media agenda, the question is whether such an advantageous position in the media can effectively attract those undecided voters," said Chang Jung-feng (
"The president's defensive referendum plan may impress his supporters but is obviously not enough to become the top priority for people who have yet to make a final decision" on who to vote for, Chang said.
Chang, who now serves as vice president of the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research, said that since the president announced the wording of the two referendum questions, the DPP should now move on from debates over the referendum.
"Taiwan's first ever referendum is very important to hard-core voters, but as for middle-class voters, they may be concerned about the economy more than politics," he said.
Chang said both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance and the DPP had pledged to end negative campaigning and to focus on what visions they have for the country, "but the policy card has, up to now, not been a crucial element of the campaign."
DPP senior official and Legislator Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌) agreed that since Chen has announced the referendum questions, international uncertainty about the issue was no longer a problem.
"The DPP campaign headquarters is planning to raise new campaign issues after the Lunar New Year," Hung said.
He said the DPP should start to switch its campaign topics from political policies to people's livelihoods to win the support of non-aligned voters.
The DPP government has accomplished much during the past three years that the former KMT administrations failed to carry out, he said. Therefore the party should begin discussing policies and comparing KMT candidate Lien Chan's (
Senior political columnist Hu Wen-huei (
He said that the announcement of the referendum questions had taken the pressure off the pan-green camp.
"Once those pressures from external factors are gone and the campaign activities return to domestic issues -- and Chen's opponents have to adjust their tactics in dealing with the referendum issue -- it will be time for Chen to enjoy the results and get ready for the next battle," Hu said.
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