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Updated Friday, April 29, 2011 11:54 pm TWN, The China Post news staff

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Tsai, Ma running neck-and-neck: polls

The China Post news staff--Polls conducted by several media groups immediately after the announcement of the 2012 presidential candidates of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT) indicated a tie of within 1% difference in the support of Tsai Ing-wen of DPP and Ma Ying-jeou of KMT except for the Apple Daily survey, which indicated a great lead on Tsai's part. The result caused an uproar among both KMT and DPP members.

KMT's crisis

Several KMT senior members expressed their solemn awareness that President Ma, despite being currently in office, did not lead the poll.

KMT legislator Wu Yu-sheng called on his fellow officials to be aware of the possibility of Ma losing the presidential campaign. He said unless the KMT realizes that Ma is not definitely winning, he will definitely lose.

Legislator Chiu Yi recommended Ma to draw the people's attention from environmental issues about which the DPP is manipulative back to, for example, economic issues that the KMT could lead discussions about.

Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-ping echoed Chiu by regarding the lag of 1% in the polls as still insignificant; that Ma has not lost yet and focusing on the cross-strait achievements would increase his support in the prospective campaign.

Legislator Ting Shou-chung suggested that Ma emphasize his personal traits, the international outlook with which he had inspired supporters' enthusiasm throughout the last campaign.

DPP's confidence boosted

DPP legislator Chen Ting-fei said that because the advantage the ruling party has over the poll results was not demonstrated, the DPP's confidence in winning the 2012 election was greatly boosted.

DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Wong Chin-chu concluded from past experiences that poll results had been unfavorable to the DPP in the two presidential elections that DPP had won. With another year of preparation, it is highly likely that the chance of DPP winning will rise, Wong said.

Former DPP Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang who lost the DPP preliminary to Tsai expressed his support for Tsai. He suggested that people lost faith in Ma for reasons other than the cross-strait issues, so if the DPP deals with the cross-strait issues appropriately, “Our victory will come.”

DPP legislative caucus director Gao Jyh-peng claimed that Ma's reputation has been plunging and that Tsai's prestige is still rising. It is an insult to Tsai to be compared with Ma.

None of the polls conducted took into account the choice of candidate for vice president (VP) could have on the presidential candidates. As the discussions about potential VP's heat up, poll results could vary; until the election takes place next January, citizens will be keeping close watch on both the KMT and the DPP via polls.

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Comments

April 29, 2011 in.sanxia@

Ask Tsai if her money and family are in Taiwan, or in the USA. She is just another greedy DPP wanna-be. If elected, her family and friends will run off with our money, and once again make us the laughing stock of Asia.

May 1, 2011 hsiehmingyu@

in.sanxia@ wrote:
Ask Tsai if her money and family are in Taiwan, or in the USA. She is just another greedy DPP wanna-be. If elected, her family and friends will run off with our money, and once again make us the laughing stock of Asia.

i don't think the Blues have ANY authority to speak about corruption cos Blues ARE arguably the most corrupt political party in the world!

May 5, 2011 larsallday@

Well Chen sure tried his best to live up to their legacy. Too bad he's so incompetent that he could only get his grubby little hands on a few million. Rot in jail pal. In eight years the DPP made sure that Taiwan saw zero economic benefit from China's rise - while Taiwanese companies built it. Well done!