President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday set up a southern campaign office in Greater Tainan for his re-election bid, pledging to focus more on promoting development in the south.
Ma, who doubles as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, defended his government’s performance over the past three years in reviving the economy, building a clean government and promoting peace across the Taiwan Strait, while criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) record during the previous administration.
“Global economic growth rate was 1.7 percent, but Taiwan enjoyed a 3.6 percent economic growth rate … We are more capable [than the former DPP administration], right?” he said.
Photo: CNA
Ma said the DPP had said he would sell out Taiwan if elected, and that now he had proved that the only things he sold were fruits and other agricultural products from Taiwan amid government efforts to develop the agricultural industry.
“The KMT will start from the south and move forward to victory in the elections step by step,” he said.
The establishment of a campaign office in Tainan highlighted the KMT’s efforts to expand its support in traditional pan-green strongholds. Ma’s campaign office will set up another office in Greater Kaohsiung today as the president and his running mate, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), spend more time campaigning in the south ahead of January’s presidential election.
Legislative candidates in Greater Tainan, including former KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) and cable TV anchorperson Chen Yi-chen (陳以真) attended the opening of Ma’s southern campaign office, promising to win the legislative election.
Huang Cheng-hsiung (黃正雄), the director of Ma’s campaign office in Tainan, said the KMT has been gaining support in the south.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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