The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) plans to focus the last month of its campaign on distracting from controversies surrounding its legislator-at-large candidates, a source said yesterday.
Instead, the campaign would continue to zero in on allegations against Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) over a post online that has been implicated in the suicide of a diplomat, and would attempt to strengthen reactionary sentiment directed at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, the source added.
The KMT hopes to draw attention away from criticism of legislator-at-large candidate Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), whom the DPP have pushed to remove from the list, sending the KMT scrambling, the source said.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
Wu’s addition to the list has been scrutinized after it was revealed that he had attended a Chinese government event in Beijing where he stood for the Chinese national anthem.
“Although Wu is only a legislator-at-large nominee, the controversy surrounding him has affected the campaigns of other nominees,” the source said. “It’s been like a game of hot potato where legislators are being asked about Wu and don’t know how to answer.”
Wu, believing that he would not be harmful to the KMT, has turned up uninvited at other legislators’ campaign events, the source said.
“He and former army commander-in-chief General Chen Chen-hsiang (陳鎮湘) have appeared at campaign events causing a headache for other nominees. All they can do is try their best to prevent him from taking the stage,” the source said.
Former New Taipei City mayor and KMT central campaign office head Eric Chu (朱立倫) has not yet started online campaign efforts, the source said, adding that the focus of the KMT’s overall online campaign was expected to follow that of its presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) campaign, which was chosen by Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Anne Wang (王淺秋).
The KMT theme in this election cycle has been “taking down President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and replacing her with the ‘Republic of China clique,’” the source said.
The DPP’s focus on Wu has helped its own efforts, but it has also faced pressure from several matters, including the Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) corruption scandal, the Yang case and most recently, the Far Eastern Air Transport’s (FAT, 遠東航空) decision to cease operations, the source added.
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