A presidential debate for the Jan. 11 elections is to be held on Dec. 29 and broadcast by Public Television Service (PTS), several news organizations announced yesterday.
The candidates would field questions by journalists from the Central News Agency and the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Liberty Times, United Daily News and China Times newspapers, PTS News Network producer and debate host Chen Hsin-tsung (陳信聰) told a news conference.
The news outlets were joined at the conference by SET-TV, Formosa TV, TVBS and CtiTV News — which are to jointly broadcast the debate along with PTS — as well as representatives from the campaign offices of the three presidential candidates.
The debate would be divided into four segments and run from 2pm to 4:30pm, Chen said.
Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, was represented at the meeting by KMT Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and KMT legislator-at-large nominee Chen Yi-hsin (陳以信).
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) was represented by his secretary, Wei Chih-chung (魏志中), and Shih Pei-pei (時蓓蓓), who is office director for PFP Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞).
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is seeking re-election, was represented by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) and Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), as well as her campaign office spokesman Liao Tai-hsiang (廖泰翔).
The debate would be produced and broadcast by PTS, while the other TV companies would share it on their channels and online streaming services, Chen said, adding that sign language service would be provided during the debate.
The order in which the candidates are to speak was determined by drawing lots, Chen said, adding that Han would speak first, followed by Soong and Tsai.
The speeches, which are to last eight minutes each, would be the first segment, he added.
That would be followed by a question-and-answer session, with the journalists asking five jointly determined questions, one at a time, Chen said.
The candidates would each have two-and-a-half minutes to answer each question, he said.
In the third segment, the candidates would each be given one minute to ask questions of each other, and two minutes each to answer the questions, Chen said.
The candidates would deliver their closing remarks in the final segment, he added.
The candidates would later decide whether to hold a second debate, Lee said, adding that Tsai and Soong hope for a second round.
Han’s campaign office would prefer having just one debate, citing concerns over the political stance of senior executives at SET-TV, Lo said.
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