With the Hualien County commissioner race looking to be a close call between KMT-PFP alliance nominee Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) and KMT splinter candidate Wu Kuo-tung (吳國棟), some members within the KMT are calling for pan-blue supporters to resort to the so-called "dump-save effect" or "strategic voting" in a bid to avoid handing an unexpected win to DPP candidate You Ying-lung (游盈隆).
"In view of local rumors that say Wu is set to receive wide support from local PFP grassroots, the Hsieh camp must not underestimate Wu's vote-pulling potential," KMT legislative leader Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) said.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"With the by-election drawing closer to the final countdown, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) should call for people to dump Wu in order to consolidate pan-blue support for Hsieh."
The by-election is slated to take place this coming Saturday. Although polls show that Hsieh is in the lead, both You and Wu are close behind showing steady increases in their support ratings.
"Unless Hsieh can widen the gap between him and Wu, it is possible that the DPP candidate would benefit most from a tight race between Hsieh and Wu," said Liu.
Given the fact that both Hsieh and Wu's votes overlap as they battle it out for Hualien's traditional pan-blue support, the Hsieh camp is appealing to supporters to "dump Wu to save Hsieh," while the Wu camp is calling on its supports to do the opposite.
Both Soong and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) showed up in Hualien yesterday with a group of fellow party legislators. Accompanying Hsieh, the group engaged in an all-day electioneering effort yesterday ranging from visiting local influential figures, taking part in street procession to various Hualien villages, chatting with Aborigines over lunch and attending a campaign rally at night.
While admitting that Soong holds significant sway with the region's Aborigines, Wu, a Hakka, remained confident Soong and Lien's presence would not threaten his basic Hakka support.
"If the KMT and the PFP overplay their hand, it might produce a counter effect with Aborigines," Wu said.
"That would not bode well for next March's presidential election," he added.
Asked to comment on the pan-blue camp's "dump-save effect" propaganda, You said, "It is obvious the KMT and the PFP from the beginning have always wanted to get rid of Wu."
"Although it is not yet clear how the `dump-save effect' would develop, I have gathered from my visits to grassroots that there seems to be a see-saw battle between Hsieh and Wu's supporters," he said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS