The highlight of this week’s election campaign was the first televised policy presentation on Wednesday evening. When they weren’t attacking each other, the three candidates focused on domestic affairs and on making their case as to why they were best suited to deal with China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) wore glasses and switched between Mandarin and Taiwanese, making extensive use of hand gestures, perhaps to increase his approachability. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) wore a purple tie (his lucky color) and addressed controversy over renovations to his ancestral home in New Taipei’s Wanli district. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), wearing a Republic of China lapel, spent less of his time sparring with his opponents and more time focusing on presenting his policies.
Hou started the presentation by asking, “Do you know what the character of the year that was chosen for this year is? It is the character ‘lack’ (缺), which also proves the DPP’s incompetence.”
Lai asked, “Mayor Hou, Chairman Ko, do you really think that with accepting the ‘one China’ principle, the 1992 consensus or seeing China and Taiwan as one family, can the precious lives of the 23.5 million people really be entrusted to China’s goodwill?”
Attacking both the KMT and the DPP, Ko said he would not be a corrupt leader. He said he would not leave debt for future generations to pay for and he would not create a huge burden for the next generation like the other two parties have.
Hou said the “magic mountain” (護國神山) that protects the country on cross-strait relations is the “Constitution of the Republic of China.” Any consensus, whether it is the “1992 consensus” or any other consensus, falls under the Republic of China’s constitution. He said he opposes China’s proposed “one country two systems” model and also opposes Taiwanese independence.
Lai said he was willing to put his ancestral house in Wanli, where miners like his father used to live, into a public welfare trust to be used as a memorial hall for the lives of miners.
Ko said he aimed to engage in dialogue with China on an equal footing and with dignity. Regarding the government’s use of special budgets outside of the general budget, Ko said this can only be used for wars, major economic events, natural disasters and man-made calamities. He stressed that special budgets cannot be abused.
The three candidates still have two more policy presentations scheduled for December 26 and December 28. Televised policy presentations for the vice presidential candidates are scheduled to take place on the evening of December 22.
One of the most contentious issues is how to deal with China, which is intensifying its pressure on Taiwan. But voters are also focused on policies closely related to their everyday lives, namely the economy.
Winning over undecided voters as well as younger voters may well be key to winning the upcoming election.
This week’s polls showed barely any change in support after the policy presentations. My-Formosa’s latest results show that Lai’s numbers rose to 37.3%, an increase of 1%. Hou rose to 33.4%, an increase of 0.6%. Ko remained steady at 17.7%. Undecided voters dropped by 1.7% to 11.6%.
According to ETtoday’s latest polls, even less changed. Lai rose by 0.3% to 36.2%, Hou rose by 0.1% to 34.8%, and Ko was up 1.1% to 20.7%. The percentage of undecided voters fell by 1.6% to 8.2%.
With the elections taking place on January 13, the Ministry of National Defense today announced that the military will conduct enhanced readiness activities from 5 p.m. on January 12 to 8 a.m. on January 14. The defense ministry will closely monitor the Chinese military’s movements and make timely adjustments to troop deployments in accordance with regulations and take relevant actions to respond to any threats.
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