Ting and Hau battle it out for KMT's Taipei candidacy

Although the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has called for a gentlemanly contest in its mayoral primaries, Taipei hopeful Ting Shou-chong (丁守中) yesterday lashed rival Hau Lung-bin's (郝龍斌) over his political loyalties and expressed disappointment about another hopeful's withdrawal over a campaign ad that targeted Hau.

The KMT yesterday held a forum for its Taipei mayoral hopefuls which was televised live by China Television (CTV). KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated the primary regulations forbidding negative campaigning and personal attacks before the forum started, but declined to comment on Yeh Chin-chuan's (葉金川) recent withdrawal over a campaign ad that earned him a written reprimand.

"The primary regulations do not allow personal attacks or violation of a candidate's privacy. We don't want the primary to damage party harmony," Ma said yesterday.

During the forum, however, Ting, a KMT legislator, lambasted Hau for working for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government as the former Environmental Protection Administration head and campaigning for Council of Labor Affairs Chairman Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) when he was running against Ma as the DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate in 2004.

"In a democratic election, both a candidate's good and bad points should be examined. Hau accused former deputy mayor Yeh of being too eager to harm him with the ad. I think the accusations were a little overdone," Ting said.

Yeh, a former Taipei deputy mayor, withdrew from the primary last week over a campaign ad questioning Hau's political loyalties. The ad drew serious criticism from Hau and other party members as well as a written reprimand from the party.

Hau declined to make any response to Ting's accusations and hit out at the DPP instead.

`Rreal democracy'

"I will keep a low profile and raise the integrity of the primary by making no criticism of my rival ... but compared to the DPP, which has failed to choose its candidate in a fair manner, the KMT's primary to decide upon a candidate is real democracy," Hau said.

Hau vowed to continue to promote integrity within the city government's staff to ensure that it is corruption free, and presented a "zero-tolerance policy" aimed at solving problems Taipei residents cannot tolerate.

With KMT legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元), John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and Yeh withdrawing from the race, only Hau and Ting are left in the competition.

Random phone poll

The party will hold a random telephone poll from May 21 to May 23, followed by KMT member voting on May 27. The telephone survey accounts for 70 percent of the final outcome, while voting makes up only 30 percent.

Meanwhile, eight KMT members vying to be the party's candidate for the Kaohsiung mayoral election slugged it out during a televised debate held by local cable news channel TVBS yesterday.

KMT Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), Apollo Chen (陳學聖), Lwo Shih-hsiung (羅世雄), former Kaohsiung deputy mayor Huang Jun-ying (黃俊英), former legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴), former Penghu County commissioner Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉) and former Kaohsiung City Council speaker Huang Chi-chuan (黃啟川) each presented their platforms in a bid to show their capacity to lead the city.

The KMT's primary for its Kaohsiung candidate will take place the same day as its primary for the Taipei mayoral election.