The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are sparing no effort in employing a variety of campaign strategies to boost support for their presidential candidates ahead of the election on Jan. 11.
In the “sky battle” — or online campaigning — the re-election campaign team for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the DPP has targeted younger voters by using social media platforms, music and videos to tout her political achievements, DPP sources said.
A song called Captain Taiwan (台灣隊長) was released on Sept. 24 with rap lines highlighting the performance of the Tsai administration, while a show on YouTube called Ing-wen English (英文英文), hosted by Tsai herself, promotes her government’s agriculture, industry and national defense policies and teaches English vocabulary, they said.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
Tsai’s campaign team on Oct. 31 launched an online game titled An Adventure at the Presidential Office to increase understanding of what she has achieved in her presidency, they said.
In the “ground battle” — or “engaging with voters” — Tsai attends campaign activities, gives speeches and greets members of the public, during which she reiterates her administration’s achievements, the sources said.
In addition to communicating with and answering questions from the public face-to-face, Tsai’s campaign team posts footage of such events to increase their exposure and reach people who are not able to attend, they said.
Photo: Hsu You-wen, Taipei Times
Faced with criticism over her policies and election promises from the KMT and its presidential candidate, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the sources said that government agencies at all levels are ready to promptly respond to concerns people raise.
Making big campaign promises is what Han is good at, and voters only gave him a shot because he was a newcomer to politics, the sources said.
Now that people have found out that Han has no capacity to deliver on his vows, bigger promises in his presidential campaign would only repulse voters, they said.
On the KMT front, sources from the pan-blue camp said that Han’s forte is his ability to engage with grassroots supporters, adding that his campaign activities have featured topics that suit local situations — mostly industry and youth — to gain maximum traction.
The “air force” for Han’s “sky battle” was deployed as his campaign began last month, dubbed “A Listening Journey,” which aims to hear the voices of people across the nation, the KMT sources said.
Since then, Han’s team has promoted his campaign online, including responses to major social issues, reflections after interacting with grassroots supporters and young people, and a life-oriented video that features him doing laundry.
While Han has a focus on industry and youth issues, education and women issues are handled by his wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), who has a lecture tour called “Chia-fen Lectures,” which complements Han’s listening journey and achieves the optimal campaign outcome, Han aides said.
A second part to Han’s campaign is to be introduced after the listening journey ends this month, the aides said, adding that it would feature national issues in collaboration with KMT’s legislative candidates in target regions to bolster the campaign’s momentum.
The goal is to rebuild the overwhelming sentiment from Han’s mayoral campaign rallies last year, they said.
With a well-established “air force” performing strongly and its “ground troops” yet to be deployed, the campaign team said it has the confidence to send Han all the way to the top on Jan. 11.
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