Su camp spokesman rubbishes opinion poll findings

Premier Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) camp yesterday called into question the authenticity of a recent opinion poll that put his opponent, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), ahead of him by 18 percent in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential primary.

"It's exaggerated. It's absurd ... We have grave concerns over the motive of whoever offered the poll," spokesman for Su's campaign office Lin Yu-sheng (林育生) told a press conference.

Lin was referring to a report broadcast by the SET-TV news channel on Friday in which it said a poll suggested respondents favored Hsieh by 53.7 percent to Su's 35.3 percent. The news channel corrected itself on the source of the survey from "DPP headquarters" to "the green camp" after the DPP issued a statement.

"If that was a credible survey, we wouldn't bother running [in the primary] now," said Lin, who is also a DPP lawmaker.

Lin said that the polls conducted by Su's campaign office showed that Su has been leading in the polls, regardless of whether pan-blue voters or moderate voters are filtered out of the results.

Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰), director of Su's campaign office, called on the media to impartially monitor the party's primary rather than make itself a tool manipulated by politicians.

Approached by reporters for comment on the allegation, Hsieh denied any prior knowledge of the survey.

He did not elaborate, but said his campaign had conducted its own opinion poll on the DPP's four presidential hopefuls and the rating difference between him and Su "is much bigger than in the TV poll."

Hsieh said the survey by his campaign showed he had a lead among the four candidates regardless of whether only pan-green supporters or swing voters were asked.

In related news, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is bidding for the KMT's presidential nomination, criticized the four DPP presidential contenders' policies yesterday.

Ma, who was attacked by the four hopefuls during a debate about his pro-unification stance, said the attacks were nonsense.

"I've always advocated that Taiwan's future lies in securing the status quo of the Republic of China [ROC]," he said.

"Therefore, voting for me as the next Taiwanese president means consolidating the ROC's status quo," Ma said.

KMT lawmakers yesterday also criticized the DPP's televised debate on Saturday as "lacking substance on the nation's development."

"It was a lively debate and pretty fun to watch, but it lacked substance and vision for the country," KMT Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓) told a press conference.

Chou said the four DPP presidential hopefuls -- Su, Hsieh, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and DPP Chairman Yu SHyi-kun -- all skirted questions of importance to the country's development.