With registration for the November special municipality elections having ended on Friday, the election campaign has now entered a new stage.
A total of 7,917 people registered their candidacies with election authorities. They include 14 candidates for five mayoral positions, 649 people running for 314 councilor spots and 7,254 people are seeking 3,758 borough chief posts.
The “three-in-one” poll will be held simultaneously from 8am to 4pm on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Taipei County (which will become Sinbei City), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung city and county), Greater Tainan (a merger of Tainan city and county) and Greater Kaohsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung city and county).
PHOTO: LIU JUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
According to the Central Election Commission, a draw will be held to decide the candidates’ ballot numbers on Oct. 29. Mayoral candidates will be allowed to give campaign speeches from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26, while candidates for city councilor will give their speeches from Nov. 17 to Nov. 26.
The five special municipality elections are seen as a gauge for the 2012 presidential election.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) expects its candidates to secure mayoral posts for Taipei, Sinbei and Greater Taichung, while victory in a fourth municipality is the best-case scenario.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is confident of at least winning Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung and is also optimistic that its Taipei mayoral candidate, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), can win.
The DPP also expects its Sinbei mayoral candidate, Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), to win more voter support on election day. The DPP added that it will continue to step up its efforts to raise the profile of its Greater Taichung mayoral candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全).
The KMT is trying hard to reverse the negative impact caused by the Taipei City Government’s recent crises involving the upcoming Taipei International Flora Expo, scheduled to open a week before the elections, and the Xinsheng Overpass reconstruction project.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as the KMT’s chairman, on Friday promised that he would devote more effort to the party’s campaigns.
According to a recent poll conducted by the Chinese-language China Times in Kaohsiung City, 46 percent of potential voters said they support incumbent Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP and 63 percent of respondents also said they believed Chen would be re-elected.
In the survey, which polled 1,006 respondents from Monday to Wednesday, 20 percent expressed their support for Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), who broke away from the DPP earlier last month to run as an independent candidate. Meanwhile, 15 percent voiced their support for the KMT’s Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順).
About 19 percent of respondents declined to reveal for whom they would vote.
Few believed that Yang or Huang would be able to win. About 8 percent of respondents said that Yang was going to win the race, while only 4 percent were confident about Huang’s victory.
Political observers said it was worth noting that among pan-blue voters, only 45 percent said they would vote for Huang, while 28 percent said they would vote for Yang and 13 percent supported Chen.
In the survey, 83 percent said they would cast their ballots on election day, while 10 percent said they may vote, with the remainder saying they would stay home and not vote.
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