Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), and his running mate, former Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), campaigned in northern and southern Taiwan on the last Sunday before Saturday’s election, urging Taiwanese voters to vote the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) out of office.
“People are upset because the DPP is corrupt, and they are worried that the party’s support for annulling the death penalty would compromise public safety,” Hou said while campaigning in Taoyuan.
“The DPP’s position on cross-strait relations would provoke war. Taiwan would have no future if the DPP is elected again. I urge you to cast your votes so that there is a change in the ruling party, and I will terminate all the injustice so Taiwan can start afresh,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Hou also accused the DPP presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), of copying his campaign pledges and making them Lai’s own, including no medical insurance fees for elderly people, giving healthcare professionals a raise, allowing the entry of Chinese tourists and hiring talents regardless of their party affiliations.
In a campaign rally in Kaohsiung yesterday, Hou further accused the DPP of using the dissolved Transitional Justice Commission to criticize and hurt him. He also reminded participants in the rally of the DPP’s alleged intervention in the election of National Taiwan University’s president by asking the university to remove Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), who served as the former Minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development in former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration after being elected the university’s president.
The incident was not settled until the DPP government changed the minister of education three times.
Kuan, who attended the rally as a special guest, told the crowds that he was a victim of the DPP’s infringement on Taiwanese’s rights and academic freedoms.
Jaw, who campaigned in Taipei yesterday morning, said that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army should stop dispatching military aircraft to fly across or near the median line in the Taiwan Strait during the last week of the election.
“Please let the election proceed peacefully. It would only add pressure ahead of such an important election,” he said.
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