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Presidential election: 26 days to go: Ma denies Hsieh camp allegations of home in the US

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) camp yesterday dismissed accusations by a member of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) camp that Ma owned real estate in the US and urged the Hsieh camp to refrain from making accusations without the evidence to back them.

The "Viva Taiwan" Web TV site, run by cartoonist Yu-fu (魚夫), a staff member in the Hsieh camp, provided an address in the US -- Auburn Court, South Setauket, New York, 11720 -- along with a satellite picture of the location from Google Maps on its blog (vivataiwantv.blogspot.com/), claiming that a staff reporter from the Web TV station had discovered that Ma had registered the property as his address in the US.

OWNER

Yu said that the property had been purchased by Ma's sister, Ma Yi-nan (馬以南), on her brother's behalf and urged the candidate to reveal whether or not he owned the property.

In response, Ma camp spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said yesterday that Ma Yi-nan had owned the property in question between 1973 and 1985, but that Ma Ying-jeou had nothing to do with the house.

"As a foreign student, Ma moved from place to place and only used his sister's address as a contact address," Su told a press conference at the Ma campaign headquarters.

"But he did not own any real estate in the US," he said.

DECLARATIONS

Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強), another Ma spokesman, said that both Ma ying-jeou and his wife, Chow Mei-ching (周美青), did not own any real estate in the US, in accordance with their property declarations.

Nor did his two daughters, who are both working in the US, he said.

The house owned by Ma Yi-nan has since been sold, Luo said.

Ma camp spokesman Tsai Shih-pin (蔡詩萍) criticized the Hsieh camp for making false accusations while providing little evidence and urged Hsieh to instead focus his efforts on discussing public policies with Ma ying-jeou.
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