Taipei, Feb. 20 (CNA) Taiwan's ruling and main opposition parties wasted no time during the nine-day Lunar New Year break to make a final push for the four legislative by-elections that will take place next Saturday, races that both parties see as must-wins.
President Ma Ying-jeou, who doubles as chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), spent his holiday campaigning for KMT candidates in the four electoral districts at stake, desperate to reverse a slump that has seen the party lose all three legislative by-elections on Jan. 9 and perform poorly in county and city government elections on Dec. 5, 2009.
The latest polls suggest it will not be an easy task because opposition Democratic Progressive Party candidates are running strong in the four electoral districts, in Taoyuan, Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Hualien counties, and the KMT is split in two of them.
Yet DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who was also on the campaign trail in the four areas during the New Year's break, said the elections will be "a tough battle" because three of the four districts have been traditional KMT strongholds.
But the DPP has momentum on its side, fueled by the government's low approval ratings.
The DPP won the three seats contested in Taoyuan, Taichung and Taitung counties last month to boost its seat total in the Legislative Yuan to 30, more than the one-quarter of the body's 113 seats needed to be able to launch motions to amend the Constitution or recall the president.
Another sweep Feb. 27 would further boost its status after it suffered humiliating defeats in the 2008 legislative and presidential elections and would put it in prime position for the five special municipality elections to be contested late this year.
Ma and his right-hand man King Pu-tsung, the KMT's secretary-general, have stressed in rallies how critical the by-elections are for the party. Regardless of the outcome, the KMT will still control a healthy majority in the legislature, but it clearly wants some electoral success to boost its flagging confidence ahead of the end-of-year mayoral races.
They have also stressed the importance of "consolidation, " especially needed in Taoyuan and Hualien counties, where several KMT members have entered the contests as independent candidates and could draw support away from the party's official nominees.
In Taoyuan, KMT candidate Apollo Chen faces DPP rival Huan Jen-shu and two former KMT memebers, Lin Siang-mei and Wu Yu-tung.
In Hualien, KMT candidate Wang Ting-sheng not only has to face the DPP's Hsiao Bi-khim, who has no connection to the eastern county but has made great strides since the campaign began.
He also must deal with the challenge from Shih Sheng-lan, a former KMT member entered as an independent who has the backing of incumbent Hualien County Magistrate Fu Kun-chi.
Fu, also a former KMT member, won the race for county magistrate in December with 56 percent of the vote as an independent against two other candidates, one of them the KMT』s official nominee. In the Chiayi County race, DPP candidate Chen Ming-wen enjoys an advantage as the southern county's previous magistrate and its traditional status as a DPP stronghold. But the KMT said last week its candidate Lin Teh-jui has pulled even.
According to the National Cheng Chi University's Swarchy market prediction Web site (http: //nccu.swarchy.org) , which uses a stock market mechanism for members to predict results of future events and has enjoyed relative success in predicting Taiwan's election outcomes in the past, the DPP is ahead in three of four races being contested.