With the mayoral election only a day away, most Taipei residents have formed their voting decisions, with many giving ample weight to the two candidates' character.
Lin Yu-yun (林郁昀), 24, an employee at the Kungkuan outlet the Kingstone bookstore chain, said he would vote for Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), saying he is less negative compared with his DPP challenger Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).
"I prefer Ma to Lee as the latter spends way too much of his campaign attacking the incumbent," said Lin, who lives in Chung-cheng district.
Ma received 49,864 votes, or the support of 54 percent of voters, in the district four years ago.
Lin, an independent, said he was also impressed by Ma's squeaky-clean image.
"For the aforementioned reasons, I'm willing to overlook the mayor's inefficiency in cleaning up the aftermath of Typhoon Nari last year," he said.
The disaster brought an unprecedented amount of rainfall to the capital, killing 27 people, flooding 4,000 basements and disrupting the mass rapid system for more than a month. Some of the damage could have been avoided if the city government had taken adequate precautions.
Regardless, Ma appears set to win the election as polls show he enjoys a two-digit lead against his DPP challenger.
Liu Lu-chun (
"To judge a politician, one needs to take many things into consideration," he said.
"Well educated and kindhearted, Ma will make a good mayor during his second term," Liu said.
A retired soldier, Liu said he will not back any candidate with a pro-independence leaning, a stance held by many of the over 100,000 mainlanders in the city.
Ma garnered 99,843 ballots, or 56 percent support, from the Tai-an district in 1998.
The mayor's pro-unification beliefs, however, turn away voters at the other end of the sovereignty spectrum.
Lu Fong-chen (呂芳成), 51, who owns Jessica Florist in Chungshan district, said he will vote for Lee because the DPP flag-bearer favors Taiwan independence.
"Whether a candidate identifies with Taiwan tops my list of concerns," he said, adding that his two daughters and sisters share his opinion.
Lu, without any political affiliation, painted Ma as a mediocre mayor who has done little except perform political stunts in the past four years.
The Chungshan district is one of the three communities where Ma failed to win a majority of the votes in 1998.
Wang Ching-shun (
Wang and his 33-year-old wife, Hsu Shiow-ling (許秀鈴), said Taipei has stagnated and that it takes a decisive administrator to inject the city with vitality.
The couple said they are not familiar with Lee but trusted the recommendation of President Chen Shui-bian (
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