In a final push to strengthen its campaign before Saturday’s nine-in-one elections, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has prepared fliers, posters and slogans to reinforce the idea that the elections should be considered a vote of non-confidence in President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
Support for the party is warming, and many individuals are more willing defend the platforms of pan-blue candidates, Acting KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director-General Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said.
Tang said that support for the party is certainly a result of KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) growing popularity.
Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
“In the days leading up to election day, we will be making a final drive to solidify support for our candidates, seeking to highlight the inefficacy of the ruling party and, moreover, that it should be ‘punished’ for it,” he said.
For posters and slogans, the general message is that “to vote for XXX is to support Tsai,” Tang said, adding that the posters have already been delivered to local party chapters, who have the ultimate say about when to use them.
The KMT is introducing four slogans: “Tsai is responsible for slashing pension payouts, leaving retired military personnel, civil servants and teachers without dignity”; “Tsai is the one responsible for youths being overworked with low wages and forced to eke out a living in other counties and cities”; “Tsai is the one responsible for the continued exploitation of laborers, working for nothing with fixed salaries”; and “Tsai is the one responsible for farmers toiling for nothing, losing more the more varied their produce is,” Tang said.
However, Tang said that the KMT lacks the capability of organizing the masses, and has to resort to training local party chapter workers, volunteers or party representatives.
“Through them, we hope to spread the word, more specifically our four slogans, in communities, traditional markets and boroughs, to enforce the atmosphere that the people should ‘punish’ the ruling party with their votes in the elections,” Tang said.
KMT sources on Saturday said that the party’s plan is to retain currently held counties and cities, along with eastern Taiwan and the outlying islands, with central Taiwan being the main deciding factor.
While the party has a 50-50 chance of winning in Hsinchu and Kinmen counties, the KMT feels it has completed its strategic goals in both, the sources said.
With high hopes of defeating the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in central Taiwan, especially in Taichung and Changhua County, KMT Chairperson Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) recently said: “If we flip one, it is a win; if we flip both, it is a major victory.”
The KMT’s election-eve campaign rally would be broadcast live from events across the six special municipalities from 6pm to 10pm, the sources said, adding that the party hopes to build morale by doing so.
The KMT is also arranging for party heavyweights and former party chairs to stump for mayoral candidates, the sources said, adding that they include former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), and former party chairs Lien Chan (連戰), Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).
As Han’s camp has politely turned down the offer on the grounds that it does not want to have highly politicized individuals on stage, the heavyweights plan to visit every special municipality except Kaohsiung, the sources said.
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