People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) is altering his presidential campaign tactics and moving from passive to more active campaign tactics, sources said.
The PFP is planning to hold its first event with supporters in Pingtung County on Saturday.
After garnering support from Winston Wang (王文洋), chairman of the Grace T.H.W. Group, a major electronics firm, Soong recently won support from another domestically renowned pro-localization tycoon through an introduction by PFP former legislator Liu Wen--hsiung (劉文雄), sources have said.
According to sources, the unnamed heavyweight corporate tycoon had supported pan-green parties for some time and has made several donations to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Independence Party (TIP) and other pro-localization political parties.
Sources said that the tycoon was dissatisfied with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration because of issues over his company’s use of public property and being refused help from several KMT legislators.
However, aside from gaining corporate support for a run in next year’s election, Soong has also begun to test the waters in the countryside by meeting with local heavyweights.
This move, according to Soong’s assistants, is risky and could lead to him losing support because of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) organization, as it would know which people Soong had visited.
However, his assistants added that this was a necessary risk as Soong’s intention to go the distance for his election campaign would be doubted if he did not visit the representatives.
According to PFP sources, the local heavyweights who would support Soong have already signed the election petition in the DPP-centric central and southern cities.
PFP spokesperson Lee Tung-how (李桐豪) on Saturday said that Soong’s last visit to former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) resulted in a “bad Yunlin experience,” adding that some private, but sensitive visits to rural areas resulted in KMT officials arriving as soon as Soong had left.
It is also putting a lot of pressure on the local heavyweights, Lee said.
Although visits to rural areas do have the effect of advertising Soong’s election bid, such meetings do not need to be aired to the public, Lee said, adding that the PFP’s current method is still to focus on less public methods.
While the public is well aware of the petition signing campaign, the PFP has also established many less visible campaign channels in civilian organizations and corporations that the public is less familiar with, Lee said.
As the party looks to move forward and raise its profile, the PFP plans to arrange meetings between Soong and various organizations once or twice a week to discuss the PFP’s policies and plans to hold an event to meet supporters in Pingtung County on Saturday.
The PFP also hopes to use meetings with civic organizations to help it push for a wider audience, Lee said.
Asked yesterday to respond to comments by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), who at the weekend said he did not understand why Soong insisted on running for president and that the move would take more votes away from Ma than DPP Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Soong said he believed Taiwanese wanted a third choice.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer,with additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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