Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) yesterday challenged his two competitors to televised debates on six issues important to Taipei residents.
Ting proposed the idea on the sidelines of a campaign event in Taipei that brought together the KMT’s mayoral, city councilor and borough warden candidates for Taipei.
The event was held by former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), who serves as the deputy head of the party’s central campaign team.
Photo: CNA
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent who is seeking re-election, has been using numbers to glorify his policies, while Democratic Progressive Party candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) has resorted to political ideologies, Ting said.
“None of these [tactics] are conducive to Taipei’s overall development. Election campaigns should return to public policy discussions,” Ting said, challenging Ko and Yao to TV debates on six issues of concern to residents: urban renewal, public housing, benefits for elderly people, child care, innovation and entrepreneurship, and attracting businesses and investment.
Ting said that if he was elected, his first task as mayor would be to reinstate the city’s “Double Ninth Festival” cash payments to senior citizens, which Ko dropped for wealthy and middle-income residents in 2016.
Ting said he would also increase child-rearing subsidies to new parents, as well as offering them food stamps and a baby formula subsidy.
Welcoming the idea, Yao said he is willing to debate the other candidates on a weekly basis, adding: “Public debates allow voters to see which candidate’s policy platform speaks to their needs.”
However, Ko said that there is only a need for public debates if candidates have different policies or approaches.
“On city governance, what matters is how well one can execute policies, because all the candidates’ policies are pointed in a very similar direction,” Ko said.
An opinion poll released by the TVBS Poll Center on Tuesday showed that Ko maintains a lead over the other two, with a support rating of 40 percent, followed by Ting with 30 percent and Yao with 11 percent.
Compared with a similar survey conducted by the same poll center in late-May, Ko’s support rating has climbed by 9 percentage points, while Ting’s dropped 3 percentage points and Yao’s dropped 2 percentage points.
Additional reporting by Yang Hsin-hui and Tsai Ya-hua
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