Both independent Taipei mayoral candidates Clara Chou (周玉蔻) and Li Ao (李敖) are known for their outspokenness and sharp tongues.
The only female candidate in the race, Chou, a former TV and radio show host, said Taipei's problems lie in caring for future generations and the underprivileged, not in further planning and construction.
Chou, stripped of her Taiwan Solidarity Union membership for defying a party resolution to oppose the recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said she was confident her lack of political baggage and the fact she is a woman would beviewed as advantages.
Slamming Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Chou said "Taipei has been asleep for the past eight years," and is beset by a yawning wealth gap between residents.
Li also billed himself as being free of political overlords, saying that as Taipei mayor he would resist central government and focus on the "safety of Taipei," without elaborating.
Li slammed the pan-green camp for being too meek to push for national independence, and panned the pan-blue camp for being too meek to push for unification with China.
In a recent public notice distributed by the Central Election Commission, Li merely published a poem in the "platform" category.
In it, Li stated that "Taiwan is finished" and that "everybody should fend for themselves, and go shoot others with guns."
In the "education" category, he listed his various dissident activities in his youth against an "LP government."
"LP" refers to a shortened pronunciation of the Taiwanese slang for "testicles."
Additional reporting by Max Hirsch
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