Taiwan president gets surprise campaign boost


Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s reelection chances got a boost yesterday when he unexpectedly was endorsed by a close friend of an independent candidate widely seen as diverting votes away from him.
Fu Kun-chi, an influential official in east Taiwan’s Hualien county, said that despite his admiration for the independent, James Soong, he believed Ma was the best choice for the island’s voters.
“The eurozone crisis will be a crucial test for Taiwan. We can by no means afford a recession,” Fu told a campaign gathering for Ma, who is seeking a second and last four-year term in Saturday’s vote.
“For Taiwan’s future, the public should bravely step up at this critical moment to support Ma Ying-jeou,” he said.
The appeal to ditch Soong is a boon to Ma of the Kuomintang party, who is locked in a neck-and-neck race against Tsai Ing-wen, the candidate of the anti-China Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
“It will be a plus for Ma, especially since the race is so tight,” Liu Bi-rung, a political science professor at Soochow University in Taipei, told AFP.
The candidacy of Soong, a 69-year-old former senior member of the Kuomintang, has caused jitters in the Ma camp because of overlapping support bases, with some fearing it could cost him his reelection.
A divided KMT camp was the main factor behind the party’s defeat in the 2000 presidential elections, condemning it to eight years in opposition after more than half a century in power.