Presidential election 2008: 2 days to go: Parties ask voters to be alert for `dirty tricks'

Both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on voters to be on the lookout for "dirty tricks" played by their rival camps in the run-up to Saturday's presidential election.

The KMT yesterday listed possible election tactics from the DPP and urged voters not to forget the "319 shooting incident" of 2004.

KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) called on the National Security Bureau to ensure the safety of presidential candidates and to prevent a repeat of the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004.

Wu also urged the government not to raise tensions across the Taiwan Strait and use it as an election tactic.

KMT CLAIMS

"As the presidential election approaches, the National Security Bureau should be on high alert and protect all candidates, so the shadow of the 319 incident will be gone," Wu told a press conference at the KMT headquarters.

The pan-blue camp accused the DPP of staging the shooting in order to win the 2004 election, saying the incident was "self-directed and self-acted."

Wu said DPP election tactics also included spreading rumors about the KMT bribing voters, exacerbating cross-strait tensions, or even fabricating sexual scandals or affairs to attack Ma.

Wu said a woman once suggested that KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had had a "close relationship" with her Canadian husband while studying in New York, and that such groundless allegations could appear again in the final days before the election.

DPP RESPONSE

Meanwhile, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign yesterday urged voters to be wary of the KMT "dirty tricks" in the lead up to the election.

DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) told a press conference yesterday that the KMT has been engaging in "dirty tricks" since the legislative elections in January.

She said the DPP camp had come up with a list of five "dirty tricks" the KMT has played so far.

First, Yeh said, the KMT spread fabricated information about a planned assassination of Ma to create social panic and seek voters' sympathy.

Second, she said, the DPP suspected the Ma campaign offices in Yunlin, Chiayi and Nantou counties of buying votes because they had paid people an exorbitant amount of money to distribute campaign pamphlets.

Third, the KMT manipulates the bidding on the presidential election to create a bandwagon effect, Yeh said, claiming that the KMT camp also creates stock market rumors to provoke small investors to sell off their stocks in a panic.

Finally, she said the KMT exposed their scandals and blamed it on the DPP.

Yeh said she hoped voters would see the KMT's tricks clearly and use their wisdom to make sound judgement.

"The DPP will not use the KMT's dirty tricks," she said. "We are asking national security, investigators and prosecutors to do their job and maintain social stability."

Hsieh spokesman Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠) said that the Hsieh campaign office has received threatening phone calls and letters during the campaign, but the office only reported them to authorities rather than trying to use them for political gain as the Ma camp has done.