The debate will last two hours and 45 minutes and will air live on Channel 13. It will be divided into four stages.

During the first two stages, which will last one hour each, both candidates will take turns to answer videotaped questions raised by 20 citizens and follow-up questions on such issues as the identity of Taiwan and its people, Taiwan’s participation in the Kyoto Protocol, same-sex marriage, the promotion of Aboriginal culture, social welfare, and the development of the nation’s economy.

The 20 representatives are singled out from as many as 456 people contributed questions to the PeoPo, a Web site set up for the general public to express their concerns on the Internet over the candidates, their policies and the future of Taiwan during campaign period. They include Lo Chao-hsun, who is known for heckling President Chen Shui-bian in public and Su Chien-ho, a convicted murderer whose controversial death sentence is still under review by the Taiwan High Court.

The third stage, lasting nine minutes, will be a cross-questioning session between both candidates, during which each candidate can raise three questions for his opponent to answer and vice versa.

At the fourth stage, both Hsieh and Ma are expected to make three-minute remarks concluding their views and perspectives.

The debate is jointly organized by six news media organizations: the Central News Agency, the Public Television Service Foundation, The China Times, the Liberty Times, the United Daily News and the Apple Daily, but is held by the Public Television Service Foundation.

According to the organizers, each camp will be allowed to have 30 supporters present at the debate site, and the aforementioned 20 representatives will also be invited to the site to offer follow-up questions for both presidential candidates to answer.

The same news media will organize a second presidential debate on March 9, which will be a traditional one, with representatives of the six organizers being responsible for presenting questions, in addition to cross-questioning by both candidates.

The organizers said the two different types of debate will allow nationals to better understand the campaign policies and platforms of both parties.

In response to the upcoming two debates, spokesman Chao Tien-lin of Hsieh’s campaign headquarters said that allowing local people to present questions through the audio-visual system is quite a creative practice, adding that Hsieh should be in a better position to answer such questions than Ma.

Chao said there are so many subjects that can be debated by presidential candidates of both parties, and therefore Hsieh’s camp hopes for more debates between both candidates.

On another front, Ma’s camp has organized a team of 10 members that are well versed in debates to help their candidate make preparations.

Spokesman Lo Chi-chiang of Ma’s campaign headquarters said that Ma is ready to meet any impromptu questions well, as he has attended over 100 seminars with grassroots organizations during his “long-stay” program around the island.

Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission will sponsor three televised policy presentations by Hsieh and Ma, which are slated for Feb. 29, March 7 and March 14.

Each round of policy presentation will last 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes will be for both candidates to present their campaign policies and platforms, and the second 15 minutes will be allowed for cross questioning by both candidates.

In addition, the CEC will also hold one televised policy presentation for vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang of the DPP and his counterpart Vincent Siew of the KMT on March 10.