Monday, November 14, 2011

DPP’s Tsai to visit Penghu

By Chris Wang  /  Staff Reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will embark on a two-day visit to Penghu today as she campaigns for the presidency in the Jan. 14 election.

Tsai is scheduled to canvass the neighborhood of Magong (馬公), the largest town in the constituency, in the afternoon, before opening her campaign headquarters with an evening rally and visiting local communities tomorrow morning.

Tsai’s campaign office aims to close the gap between the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Penghu, home to about 44,000 eligible voters.

The DPP cut its deficit to the KMT in terms of voter share to about 1 percent — 49.5 percent to 50.5 percent — in former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) re-election campaign in 2004, but saw the differential increase to 15.8 percent in 2008, when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, won in a landslide.

Since Oct. 6, Tsai has made three key election campaign trips to the west coast, the east coast and Hakka-populated constituencies, which have generated momentum for her campaign and boosted her support around the country.

Tsai could also visit Kinmen and Matsu, despite its traditionally KMT supporting electorate of less than 4,000, campaign spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said.

However, any excursion to Matsu would depend on the weather, he said.