By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is scheduled to officially register as a presidential candidate today and to formally begin her quest to become the first female president in Taiwan and bring the DPP back to power.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, registered on Monday, while the third presidential aspirant, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), is scheduled to register for the Jan. 14 presidential election tomorrow.
Tsai is scheduled to make a major speech at her campaign headquarters in Banciao (板橋), New Taipei City (新北市), at 9:40am before completing the registration process at the Central Election Commission with DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) at 10:30am.
Tsai has become increasingly confident of winning the presidential election after recent polls showed her leading Ma.
According to the latest prediction of xfuture.org, an electronic exchange at the Center for Prediction Markets at National Chengchi University, which uses a methodology similar to that used in futures markets, Tsai is increasing her lead over Ma both in the predicted vote share and the possibility of winning.
The results, released yesterday, showed that Tsai would receive a predicted vote share of 48.6 percent, 4.5 percentage higher than Ma’s 44.1, percent while Soong received 8.2 percent.
In terms of possibility of winning, Tsai also led Ma by 7.8 percent, with 48.8 percent to Ma’s 41 percent. Soong is at 11 percent.
In another survey released yesterday conducted by Taiwan Thinktank, Tsai also led Ma by 0.9 percent, with 39.6 percent support to Ma’s 38.7 percent. Soong received 11 percent, while 10 percent remained undecided.
A special team from the National Security Bureau will take over security for Tsai and Su from today until Jan. 15, one day after the election.