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 (
PHOTO: TANG SHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
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 (
DPP RESPONSE
Meanwhile, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (
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 (
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