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Legislative elections and referendums: Chen dismisses polls showing the DPP lagging behind

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday dismissed the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) weak performance in the latest polls, saying there was a large gap between reality and surveys.

Chen said under the new electoral system, the results may rewrite history and that his personal observations obtained on the campaign trail were quite different from what the polls say.

Chen questioned the veracity of the polls, which he said had high rejection rates as many respondents declined to answer questions. Some polls he saw on Tuesday had higher rejection rates than successful samples, he said.

Chen made the remarks while meeting a US delegation led by US representatives Solomon Ortiz and Steve Chabot at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.

Chen told the delegation that he found military exchanges and cooperation between the two countries "satisfactory," but urged Washington to expedite the approval of the sale of F16 fighter jets because the budget had now been authorized by the legislature.

Chen pointed out that the number of missiles Beijing has deployed against Taiwan has grown from 988 a year ago to 1,328, a number confirmed by Washington, he said.

"The astonishing number of missiles poses a serious threat to peace and security in the Taiwan Strait," he said.

Chen also urged the US government to begin the consultation process for the signing of a free trade agreement because Taiwan is one of Washington's most important trading partners and the pact would be mutually beneficial.

Chen told his guests that there were two political parties that strongly opposed the nation's referendums, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

"It is understandable that the CCP is against the referendums because China is not a democratic country," Chen said. "However, it is regrettable to see the KMT follow China's example and oppose democracy and the referendums."

In related news, the DPP yesterday condemned the KMT for playing a "dirty trick" to thwart Saturday's referendums.

Producing what he called a copy of a KMT internal document, DPP Legislator Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠), who doubles as the executive director of the DPP's Policy Committee, said the KMT was trying to meddle in election affairs.

"It is ridiculous petty maneuvering," he said. "They are acting like five-year-olds."

Shen said the KMT requested its local chapters in counties and cities governed by the DPP to cooperate with township and village wardens friendly to the KMT when setting up polling stations.

Shen said the KMT would like to make sure the tables where voters pick up their election ballots and those where they pick up referendum ballots are as far away from each other as possible to lower the odds of the referendums succeeding.

Meanwhile, the DPP demanded KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apologize for endorsing KMT legislative candidate Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who they said should withdraw from the race over allegations of corruption.

Shen said they suspected Wu's camp had cut off the power supply to a street lamp in Guandu (關渡) and connected it to a lighting system pointing at a billboard featuring Wu and Ma.
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