Taipei, April 24 (CNA)The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is scheduled to begin telephone polling Monday, the final step of its primary process to decide the party's nominee in the 2012 presidential election.
After the two-day poll, which could be extended to a third day if not completed in time, the party is expected to announce the winner on Wednesday or Thursday before making the nomination official in early May.
One of three aspirants -- DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, former Premier Su Tseng-chang and former DPP Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang -- will represent the DPP in its quest to unseat incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou, who will be seeking re-election as the candidate of the Kuomintang (KMT).
Five polling companies have been hired to conduct the surveys, with each one required to obtain 3,000 valid samples, according to the DPP.
In the surveys, which will use what is known as "contrast style polling," the party will not ask respondents which DPP candidate they support.
Instead, each respondent will be asked to voice their preference in each of three potential contests: Su vs. Ma, Tsai vs. Ma, and Hsu vs. Ma.
According to the DPP rules, if only one candidate beats Ma in the poll, he or she will be the winner. If multiple candidates beat or lose to Ma, the one with the highest score wins.
In case of a tie, the candidate with the highest winning margin or the smallest losing margin wins.
The unconventional polling style has sparked debate among DPP supporters and verbal jabs among the three aspirants over the poll's vulnerability to manipulation.
Party supporters worry that KMT backers responding to the poll are likely to back the DPP candidates with the least chance of winning to help the KMT gain an upper hand in the election.
The candidates were concerned that DPP supporters might resort to "strategic voting" -- backing their own candidate against Ma but supporting Ma against the other two DPP choices even if that does not accurately reflect their feelings.
Tsai's campaign in particular has been rebuked by her opponents for asking her supporters to "only back Tsai, " implying that they should back Ma in the other two questions.
The DPP, which held four platform presentations this month for the three hopefuls, was in power from 2000-2008. In 2000, it became the first non-KMT political party to win a presidential election in Taiwan. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls