Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) recent poor poll ratings have apparently affected the willingness of some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors to campaign with him, as some party councilors declined to use their photos with Hau for the year-end election campaign.
Hau on Thursday joined 33 KMT Taipei City councilor candidates to have campaign photos taken. The KMT subsidized each candidate NT$100,000 for the photo shoot and for election billboards, but it is not forcing the candidates to use the photos.
While all party candidates took turns to have their picture taken with the mayor, some said they did not plan to use the photos for the campaign.
PHOTO: LIN SHU-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
“To be honest, Hau’s popularity is not as good as that of his predecessor, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). Besides, the majority of the candidates are incumbent councilors, we already have a support base,” KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) said.
Another KMT Taipei City Councilor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hau did not put enough effort into maintaining good relations with the council, which contributed to the lukewarm response from some councilors towards using their photos with Hau.
In previous city councilor elections, when Ma was serving as the Taipei mayor, his photos with candidates were put up on election billboards months before the elections.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅) said the subsidy could be a good incentive for candidates with a small campaign budget, but acknowledged that the Taipei mayoral and city councilor elections will be a tough battle for the KMT.
Hau, who is running for re-election, has been suffering from a low support rate in several polls, including polls conducted by the KMT, prompting the party to become more deeply involved in Hau’s election campaign.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), on the other hand, has enjoyed a growing support rate in recent polls.
His photos with DPP Taipei City councilor candidates are already being shown on many election billboards.
DPP Taipei City Council caucus head Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said Su’s better-than-expected performance in the polls is having a positive influence on the election campaign of Taipei City councilors.
Chuang said party councilors will begin campaigning with Su this week.
He expected Su to lead the candidates in campaign activities and to win the elections in the pan-blue stronghold.
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