Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and his campaign executive director, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), gave different responses yesterday after independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) challenged Lien to a debate.
Facing repeated attacks from the KMT camp surrounding his personal finances despite his repeated explanations, Ko yesterday challenged Lien to a formal debate on policy platforms.
“Let’s have a debate on our policy platforms and plans for the city,” Ko said during a campaign event yesterday. “Let’s be examined by all the residents in the city together. Let’s not blur the focus of the election or dodge the responsibilities that we carry as mayoral candidates.”
Ko said he regrets that the mayoral election has degenerated into mudslinging, saying: “Negative campaigning is certainly not a good campaign strategy; having a debate is better.”
He said there are many issues that concern voters, such as food safety, education, daycare, elder care and environmental issues, but “they don’t care about political ideology or negative campaigning.”
Responding to Ko’s invitation in a separate setting, Lien immediately agreed to it.
“I would certainly be happy to discuss issues relating to city governance [with Ko], because I believe most people living in the city are more concerned about issues that are closely related to them,” Lien said.
As to whether he would like the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) to host the televised debate, Lien said it does not matter which TV station hosts the debate.
However, Tsai laster responded differently to Ko’s invitation.
“We would not like to take part in a debate televised by the TBS, because TBS only discussed the debate with Ko’s campaign and not with us. We feel that we have not been respected,” Tsai said.
He said Lien would take part if the debate were hosted by TVBS or SET-TV, and would strongly recommend making Ko’s previous, allegedly discriminatory remarks on women the main topic of the debate, adding that the host of the debate must be a woman.
Responding to Tsai, Ko said that he hopes Lien will make the decision by himself, instead of allowing his campaign executive director to make nonsensical remarks.
The campaign office of another independent Taipei mayoral candidate, Neil Peng (馮光遠), who is currently serving a 20-day jail term in lieu of paying a fine for calling former Council for Cultural Affairs minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) “a scum public servant,” protested against the TBS’ arrangements for a debate, as it failed to invite Peng and four other independent candidates to take part.
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