When and how a candidates’ debate can be organized, and who will host it, on Tuesday became a hot issue after the nation’s two major political parties got into a war of words, each accusing the other of not being straightforward about their respective favored host media.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would apparently like Sanlih E-Television (SET-TV) to host a debate between the three pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates ahead of the Jan. 16 elections.
SET-TV said the DPP and People First Party (PFP) expect it to host a debate, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidates would be welcome to take part.
“Another coordination meeting is to be held next week regarding our proposal to hold a presidential candidates’ debate by Dec. 25,” the privately-run pro-pan-green TV company said.
It was a coordination meeting on Tuesday that pitted the DPP against an alliance of public and private media, which also held a meeting that day without the participation of the DPP.
The alliance, comprised of the Public Television Service (PTS), the Central News Agency and four major newspapers, said it has staged three rounds of presidential candidate debates since 2004, gaining public trust in its ability to host another round for next month’s election.
After holding a coordination meeting with only KMT and PFP delegates in attendance, the alliance said it would continue to invite all three parties to reach a consensus on the details of the debate, adding: “We will follow the precedent for hosting a TV debate [involving all of the candidates].”
However, the DPP cast doubt over the alliance’s fairness and professionalism, accusing it of having been manipulated.
“How can an alliance that cannot even properly handle the simple matter of deciding on a time to hold a coordination meeting convince us of its fairness and professionalism?” DPP Department of News and Information director Alex Huang (黃重諺) asked.
Huang complained on Facebook that the PTS, which is entrusted with broadcasting the debate, flip-flopped about the time for the coordination meeting, abruptly changing the time of the meeting to 2pm, allegedly after learning that SET-TV was to hold its own coordination meeting at 3:30pm.
Meanwhile, the DPP acknowledged that it had promised SET-TV it would take part in a debate hosted by the TV station.
KMT spokesperson Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said the party still hopes to follow precedent and have all candidates debate in two sessions so that the electorate can have a clear understanding of their respective policy platforms. As to which organization would be her party’s favorite for hosting such debates, she said the PTS-led alliance — which also includes the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), the Apple Daily, the United Daily News and the China Times — has been well-received for its neutrality and public service.
“Besides, the PTS feed [on the debate] can be aired by other TV outlets simultaneously,” she added.
PFP spokesman Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said his party would like to participate in as many debates as possible, since individual candidates’ abilities would be highlighted during the debate.
No candidates who aspire to become national leaders should try to evade such debates, Lee said.
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