With election day less than a week away, Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral candidates are stepping up their campaign to win the hearts and minds of voters in the two cities.
In Kaohsiung, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidate Chen Chu (
Aside from holding a campaign rally last night, more than 500 civic groups are scheduled to stage a hand-in-hand event this afternoon to drum up support for Chen's candidacy.
PHOTO: HAUNG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
The event will take place by the Love River, with a number of DPP heavyweights, including President Chen Shui-bian (
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma joined Huang in a bicycle tour around part of the city early yesterday morning and visited the night markets to solicit support for the party's candidate.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Unlike many disappointing politicians and officials, Huang would be a professional and clean mayor," Wang said.
Back in Taipei, KMT mayoral hopefuls Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), DPP's Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and independent candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) presented their education platforms at the invitation of several parents and teachers associations.
Speaking at the forum held at Taipei Municipal Cheng Yuan High School, Hau and Soong agreed that high school textbooks should be standardized and would relieve the pressure on students, while Hsieh said such a proposal would be unrealistic.
Junior and senior high schools across the country currently use a variety of textbooks printed by different publishers.
"Integrating different versions of textbooks requires negotiations with other cities and counties. Mr. Hau's proposal would treat students like lab rats," Hsieh said.
Hau countered that he would negotiate with other cities and counties such as Taipei County and Keelung to join Taipei in promoting a standard textbook and hold an annual "basic competency test" together.
Besides advocating for standard textbooks, Soong presented his "low tuition" policy, promising to limit public high schools' tuition within NT$10,000 (US$300) per semester if elected.
Asked by a parent about his stand on promoting a school lunch program, Hau said he would support launching a program for schools in remote areas.
Soong and Hsieh, on the other hand, said a school lunch program would require a huge budget and needed to be discussed further before being carried out.
Soong and Hsieh also accused a local daily of trying to manipulate the election and called on voters not to believe public surveys.
A poll released yesterday by the Chinese-language China Times showed that Hau led the other five candidates with a support rate of 48 percent, followed by Hsieh with 20 percent, while Soong had 5 percent.
The poll interviewed 718 Taipei residents on Thursday on who they would vote for in the Dec. 9 election.
Hau's support rate increased 3 percentage points from the poll last week, while Hsieh's dropped by a percentage point and Soong's fell 2 points.
"A poll should be a tool for understanding public opinion, but it could become a lethal weapon if it was used by political parties for manipulation," Soong said.
Hsieh said that releasing a poll's result a week before election was illegal and inaccurate, adding that he would not be influenced by any poll results.
However, the Central Election Committee issued a written statement that it does not prohibit the release of any polls or surveys before elections.
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