President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign office yesterday denied media report that campaign officials had met with well-known fortune-tellers to discuss Ma’s re-election bid.
In its latest issue yesterday, the Chinese-language China Times Weekly reported that deputy executive director of Ma’s campaign office Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) had consulted with fortune-tellers Li Jianjun (李建軍) and Chan Wei-chung (詹惟中) in June about the possible impact of People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) on the presidential election in January.
In a private meeting with Lo in June, Lee suggested that the KMT should cooperate with Soong and that Ma should appoint Soong to replace Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), so that Wu could focus his efforts on the presidential campaign as vice presidential nominee, according to the report.
Photo: Tsai Meng-shang, Taipei Times
The story also claimed that Ma’s campaign office staff met with Chan last month to ask for a reading on Ma’s re-election bid.
Ma campaign office spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) denied the allegations made in the story. He said both Lo and Lee were invited to a dinner organized by Chinese Culture University chairman Chang Chien-hu (張鑑湖).
Lo was invited by guests to comment on the election campaign, but he did not ask Lee for a -prediction about Ma’s re--election bid ahead of the presidential election.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“No private meetings were held with fortune-tellers and the team did not ask about Ma’s fortune,” Lo said.
Yin said the campaign office never held any discussions with Chan and accused the magazine for making groundless allegations and fabricating stories.
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