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Public's questions chosen for the presidential debate

Gay marriage, environmental issues, preservation of Aboriginal cultures, farmland conservation, whether the Suhua Freeway should be constructed and human rights were among the questions the nation's citizens wanted to ask the two presidential candidates in their coming debate.

Organized by the Central News Agency, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), China Times, United Daily News, Apple Daily, and Public Television Service (PTS), the first televised debate for the March presidential election is scheduled for Feb. 24.

For the first time in history, the organizers have invited all Taiwanese to raise questions for the candidates by recording 30-second video clips and posting them on www.PeoPo.org, a free lance news service Web site created by PTS.

A total of 456 video clips were uploaded between Dec. 4 last year, when the upload period began, and last Thursday, when the period ended, the news service Web site showed.

CRITERIA

Twenty of the questions will be used during the debate.

"We first put the questions into 10 major categories ? then we picked out questions that best represent each category," senior producer at PTS' news department, Grace Tu (屠乃瑋), said during an interview on the Web site. "[Important criteria] include whether the question raiser clearly defined the question, whether they spoke in neutral terms and whether the question was good enough to represent a particular category. We also took into consideration if all regions [of the country], all age groups and both genders were well represented."

Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) was among the 20 people whose questions were chosen. Pan asked the two candidates if they would sign the Kyoto Protocol if Taiwan became a member of the UN and what they would do about heavy polluting industry.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Another contributor, Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), asked if the candidates had any "concrete agenda" to improve human rights conditions as progress has been slow over the years despite the "rule of human rights" slogan.

Su and two others had been on death row for more than 11 years because of the controversial Hsichi (汐止) Trio case.

The trio -- who insist they are innocent and allege they were tortured -- were accused of committing a murder in Hsichi, Taipei County, and sentenced to death, though there was no direct evidence linking them to the murder.

The 20 finalists will be invited to the debate to ask their questions to the two candidates.
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