Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Sinbei City mayoral candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she would not participate in a televised debate with her opponent, calling the process “biased” and “meaningless.”
The DPP chairperson, who is running in soon-to-be--renamed Taipei County, said she turned down the offer over concerns that a local election -committee tasked with planning the debate was biased and that the discussion would be “meaningless.”
The Sinbei City election committee, responsible for election affairs in the soon-to-be upgraded and renamed Taipei County, expected that a recording session would take place tomorrow morning, with the entire debate broadcast on television next Saturday, the week before the elections.
The law requires that local election committees plan public policy releases, which has been construed to mean debates in most local and national elections.
However, Tsai said at a campaign stop that she “lacked confidence” in the debate format, adding that the organizers were not politically neutral, repeating comments made by members of her campaign earlier this month.
Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), a campaign spokesperson, told an earlier press conference that organizers had insisted that the names of the people that would be asking questions during the debate be withheld from candidates.
The format, he said, was “unacceptable,” and raised concerns that it went against public interests of accountability and transparency.
“The decision, made in the end by my assistants, is that [I] will not be attending,” Tsai said.
In addition, she accused her opponent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), of failing to publicize his entire political platform, saying the debate would be “without meaning” under the circumstances — an accusation that Chu’s campaign has denied.
Chu’s campaign spokesman Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) said the KMT candidate’s election platform was available on his campaign Web site.
The latest refusal to hold the public debate comes just days after candidates in the Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Taichung race held discussions organized by local election committees.
Another media-planned debate, originally scheduled to take place in all five cities scheduled for elections later this month, was also canceled after talks broke down between representatives of both major parties.
Chu said that Tsai’s latest comments went against public -opinion, adding that her refusal to join the debate “broke one of Taiwan’s democratic traditions.”
“She not only failed to respect the other candidates and the election commission, but also the rights of [Sinbei City] residents,” Chu said. “[I’m sure] that the public had wanted to see us debate our election policies in the same platform.”
Tsai’s refusal came after Chu said earlier this month that he was willing to hold the debate anyplace, anywhere. Chu says he wants to get Tsai on the podium because he would like to ask her where she stands on an ambitious MRT extension that he is proposing.
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