Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) absence from the party’s latest campaign commercial for next month’s local government head elections sparked speculation yesterday about Ma’s popularity with the party’s candidates.
The KMT yesterday made public its first campaign commercial for next month’s local elections. The commercial highlighted the interactions between party candidates and local voters, while Ma, who has enjoyed great popularity with candidates in past campaigns, was notably absent.
In response to reporters’ questions about the president’s absence from the commercial, KMT Spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) said party candidates were the protagonists in the upcoming elections and denied speculation it was related to the president’s plummeting popularity.
“Chairman Ma is already in a lot of news coverage while campaigning for party candidates, and so the campaign commercials put the focus on the candidates because they are the protagonists in the elections,” Lee said yesterday at KMT headquarters. “The election next month is not a presidential election, but local elections for 18 city and county heads.”
Ma is spending his week nights and weekends campaigning for the party’s candidates. He visited Yilan County last night to stump for incumbent Yilan County Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華), and will address the KMT’s 115th anniversary celebration tonight in Taoyuan.
Lee said Ma would attend more campaign events for party candidates countrywide in the following weeks.
The party will introduce the 18 candidates for the year-end elections at the anniversary celebration, and will show video clips of Ma and the candidates at the event, Lee said.
In related news, a survey released yesterday showed a majority of Taiwanese have more trust in US President Barack Obama than in Ma.
The telephone survey of 1,004 adults by Global View monthly magazine found that only 38.6 percent trust Ma, while Obama had a 46.1 percent trust rate.
Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received a 35.4 percent trust rate, while only 17.5 percent said they trusted Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Also, 52.9 percent said Obama was friendly toward Taiwan and 52.3 percent said the US was in a better position to safeguard Taiwan’s interests than China.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DPA
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