A Friday night meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) continued to spark intense speculation over the possible impact on Saturday's polls.
At the heart of the conjecturing was the possible "dump-save effect" among pan-blue supporters.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers continued to interpret the meeting as evidence of a scheme by Ma to "dump" KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and get Soong elected, which they said would benefit Ma for the 2008 presidential election.
"The Ma-Soong meeting proved that abandoning Hau and saving Soong has become the KMT's key strategy," DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said.
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that Ma could "kill two birds with one stone" by helping Soong win on Saturday -- to divide the DPP and to unite the pan-blue camp ahead of next year's legislative election and the presidential election the following year.
Hsu referred to the division within the DPP over Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) promise that he would quit the party and join in the campaign to force President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to step down should Soong beat him.
Since Taipei is largely seen as a pan-blue city, the DPP's interpretation was seen as a strategy to help Soong draw votes from front-runner Hau and boost Hsieh's chances.
However, an anonymous lawmaker said that KMT Vice Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
"As Soong remains far behind Hau in the polls, it's hard to believe the party would ask pan-blue supporters to dump Hau and save Soong. Ma will show the party is for Hau in the final week," he said.
KMT spokesman Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) would not comment directly on voting strategy but said that experience has shown that a front-runner will not be the one to be abandoned by supporters if a "dump-save tactic" is used.
The PFP also made every effort to refute interpretations of Friday's meeting by the DPP or by the KMT.
PFP Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
"Ma and Soong met on Oct. 14 and Nov. 3 to talk about forming an alliance between two parties after the election. The latest meeting [last Friday] was supposed to take place on Nov. 30. It also focused on the alliance," Chang said.
The lawmaker said that Ma and Soong had agreed that their two parties would coordinate before nominating candidates for next year's legislative elections.
"Soong didn't make offers to Ma in exchange for the KMT's support, as the DPP has claimed," he said.
The PFP also accused Hsieh of using "government intelligence agencies" to obtain the pictures of Ma and Soong's meeting site.
Hsieh denied the accusation and said he would quit politics if anyone could prove otherwise.
Later yesterday, Soong told a press conference that Friday's meeting had been Ma's idea.
"I felt the meeting was a `set-up,'" Soong said, referring to the rumors that the KMT's voting strategy was to encourage pan-blue supporters to vote for Hau.
Ma said yesterday that he didn't discuss Saturday's election at the Friday meeting, but he refused to reveal details of his conversation with Soong.
also see story:
Editorial: Ma blunder could cost Hau dear
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS