Thu, Mar 18, 2004 page3

• Pan-blues to hold series of eleventh-hour events

  • By Huang Tai-lin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday accused President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of making an issue out of the Sino-French joint military drills to try to win votes and urged China not to try to influence the outcome.

  "We hope that communist China will adopt a hands-off policy vis-a-vis Taiwan's election," Lien said when asked about the Chinese-French exercises.

  "Chen Shui-bian has been trying to use a confrontational situation between the two sides of the Strait to his own benefit," Lien told a news conference.

  

  The pan-blue presidential candidate, Lien Chan, flashes a victory sign, which also stands for 2, his number on the election ballot, to supporters as he solicits votes in a traditional market in Taipei City yesterday.

  PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

  "I think mainland China is not foolish enough to correspond in such a matter," Lien said.

  Beijing has dismissed suggestions of a link between the timing of the unprecedented joint exercises -- launched on Tuesday about 1,250km from Taiwan's northernmost point -- and the presidential election on Saturday.

  On Tuesday, Chen told an election rally France was "evil hearted" for siding with China in exchange for its own commercial interests.

  "China test-fired missiles in 1996 and waged a war of words four years ago. This time ... China and France even conducted joint exercises that are the biggest yet in scale," Chen said.

  Meanwhile, with the election countdown at less than 72 hours, the campaign team of the opposition KMT-People First Party (PFP) alliance is gearing up with hectic campaign events in the final hours.

  Three mass campaign rallies are slated to take place tonight in Tainan City, Kaohsiung County and Taipei County. In a political division of labor, the alliance's presidential hopeful Lien will take the stage in the rallies in the south while his running mate, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), will lead the rally in Hsinchuang, Taipei County.

  On the election eve of tomorrow night, four big campaign rallies will be staged simultaneously in Taipei, Taoyuan County, Taichung and Koahsiung to give Lien's election bid a final injection before voters go tothe polls on Saturday.

  According to the alliance's tentative planning, Lien and his wife, Lien Fang Yu (連方瑀), would first take part in the rally in Taipei before boarding a charter plane and meeting with supporters at the rally in Kaohsiung.

  As for Soong, he and his wife, Chen Wan-shui (陳萬水), would appear at the campaign gathering in Kaohsiung first before rallying with the crowd in Taipei.

  Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also doubles as the campaign manager of the alliance's national campaign headquarters, will first take the stage promoting Lien's candidacy in Taipei before heading to Taichung, while the legislative speaker and the director-general of the alliance's national campaign headquarters, Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), will stump for Lien and Soong in Kaohsiung first before showing up at the rally in Taoyuan.

  The alliance's spokesman, Alex Tsai (蔡正元), stressed that "the alliance would not put an emphasis on the number of participants who show up at tomorrow night's rallies, as we aim to draw a crowd to these events voluntarily and demonstrate their determination to change the president."

  Aiming to maintain Lien's lead over President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in Taipei -- which is traditionally regarded as the pan-blue camp's stronghold -- Lien's campaign team, headed by Ma, will today and tomorrow participate in a number of street processions around the city's 12 administrative districts to appeal to people to support Lien's presidential bid.

  Lien will today take part in street processions in Sangchung, Hsinchuang and Luchou areas while Soong will appeal to passers-by for support in Chunghho, Yungho and Hsintien. Ma will attempt to boost Lien's popularity in the Panchiao area.

  Not forgetting the nation's eastern side, Lien yesterday afternoon took part in a street procession in downtown Hualien.
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