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Candidates rally support on last weekend ahead of Taiwan leader election

Xinhua, January 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Candidates running for Taiwan leadership and legislative election staged large scale campaigns Saturday across the island, the last weekend ahead of the Jan. 16 election date, dubbed "Super Saturday" by locals.

Eric Chu, candidate of the Kuomintang (KMT) and his running mate Wang Ju-hsuan, led a big parade in Taipei Saturday afternoon together with a number of KMT heavyweight politicians including Ma Ying-jeou, the island's current leader, and two former KMT chairmen, Lien Chan and Wu Poh-hsiung.

According to the KMT, about 200,000 people attended the parade. Participants started from three locations, Taiwan University and two city parks, and headed toward a square downtown where a grand gala was held.

Unlike the rainy and overcast weather earlier this week, Taipei saw a rare sunny day on Saturday. Old couples strolled in the parade holding hands while young couples carried toddlers in their arms or pushed strollers.

Chiang Shu-chen, a research assistant, took her three children to the parade together with her two sisters.

"I care more about the predictable and stable cross-Strait policies," she said. "I saw how bad Taiwan had been when cross-Strait relations were tense and how it improved in the past few years. I hope my children can grow up in an open and stable society."

Lien Chih-ching, a Taipei bank clerk who joined the parade with several colleagues, told Xinhua that, only with stable cross-Strait relations can Taiwan focus on economic development.

"The economic situation is not promising now. We hope that closer cross-Strait cooperation can help boost Taiwan's economy and thus ordinary employees like me can actually benefit," he said, adding that no matter which candidate wins the election, he or she has to face this reality and maintain a peaceful and stable relationship with the mainland.

Also on Saturday, Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) kicked off her campaign in her hometown Pingtung in south Taiwan before moving to Kaohsiung, visiting communities and hosting a big gala to rally support for herself and DPP candidates for legislators. According to DPP, her campaign will move all the way north along the island's west coast in the next week.

James Soong of People First Party also attended several galas in New Taipei, Taoyuan and Taichung. Endi