In a final push to strengthen its campaign before Saturday’s nine-in-one elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has prepared fliers, posters and slogans to reinforce the idea that the elections should be considered a vote of non-confidence in President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
Support for the party is warming, and many individuals are more willing defend the platforms of pan-blue candidates, Acting KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director-General Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said.
Tang said that support for the party is certainly a result of KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) growing popularity.
Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
“In the days leading up to election day, we will be making a final drive to solidify support for our candidates, seeking to highlight the inefficacy of the ruling party and, moreover, that it should be ‘punished’ for it,” he said.
For posters and slogans, the general message is that “to vote for XXX is to support Tsai,” Tang said, adding that the posters have already been delivered to local party chapters, who have the ultimate say about when to use them.
The KMT is introducing four slogans: “Tsai is responsible for slashing pension payouts, leaving retired military personnel, civil servants and teachers without dignity”; “Tsai is the one responsible for youths being overworked with low wages and forced to eke out a living in other counties and cities”; “Tsai is the one responsible for the continued exploitation of laborers, working for nothing with fixed salaries”; and “Tsai is the one responsible for farmers toiling for nothing, losing more the more varied their produce is,” Tang said.
However, Tang said that the KMT lacks the capability of organizing the masses, and has to resort to training local party chapter workers, volunteers or party representatives.
“Through them, we hope to spread the word, more specifically our four slogans, in communities, traditional markets and boroughs, to enforce the atmosphere that the people should ‘punish’ the ruling party with their votes in the elections,” Tang said.
KMT sources on Saturday said that the party’s plan is to retain currently held counties and cities, along with eastern Taiwan and the outlying islands, with central Taiwan being the main deciding factor.
While the party has a 50-50 chance of winning in Hsinchu and Kinmen counties, the KMT feels it has completed its strategic goals in both, the sources said.
With high hopes of defeating the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in central Taiwan, especially in Taichung and Changhua County, KMT Chairperson Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) recently said: “If we flip one, it is a win; if we flip both, it is a major victory.”
The KMT’s election-eve campaign rally would be broadcast live from events across the six special municipalities from 6pm to 10pm, the sources said, adding that the party hopes to build morale by doing so.
The KMT is also arranging for party heavyweights and former party chairs to stump for mayoral candidates, the sources said, adding that they include former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and former party chairs Lien Chan (連戰), Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).
As Han’s camp has politely turned down the offer on the grounds that it does not want to have highly politicized individuals on stage, the heavyweights plan to visit every special municipality except Kaohsiung, the sources said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard