【張博亭、吳家翔、郭建伸╱台北報導】沒有激情吶喊、沒有政壇大咖助講，無黨籍台北巿長候選人柯文哲昨晚在選前最後一夜，舉辦音樂會取代傳統造勢晚會，其間也穿插首投族、孕婦、新住民代表助講。柯致辭時說，他靠「相信」兩個字支撐參選，並認為藍綠、統獨、省籍、貧富等高牆，都應推倒。從參選之初的孤軍奮鬥，柯說，他現在已不是一個人，所有支持者都是一家人，「One City, One Family」。
無黨籍台北市長候選人柯文哲競選總部，28日晚間舉辦「One City, One Family」音樂會，並宣布這場有別於傳統造勢晚會的活動，有超過1萬5000人到場。在許多樂團、藝人表演炒熱氣氛之後，柯文哲本人在晚間9點5分與父母、妹妹和妻子陳佩琪攜手登台，在群眾歡呼聲中創下晚會最高潮。柯文哲隨即發表演講表示，他憑著「相信」2字走到今天這裡，也相信社會真的能推倒對立高牆。
Taipei Mayor’s Race Could Alter Balance of Taiwan’s Political Power
ByAUSTIN RAMZYNovember 28, 2014AIPEI, Taiwan — A doctor and political novice is favored to win Taipei’s mayoral election on Saturday, one of many races in which Taiwan’s governing party faces the prospect of its most serious setback in years.
A victory for the blunt-talking, 55-year-old physician, Ko Wen-je, would be a sharp defeat for the governing party in a city long considered its stronghold, and in a job that often becomes a springboard to the presidency.
The local elections come halfway through President Ma Ying-jeou’s final term as president, during a year in which his governing Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, has faced large-scale protests over its pursuit of closer ties with China, and food-safety scandals that have inflamed antigovernment anger.
In the Taipei mayor’s race, the governing party’s candidate, Sean Lien, is a 44-year-old former investment banker whose father, Lien Chan, served as Taiwan’s premier and vice president. While his deep connections with the party helped him win the party’s nomination, they have done little to boost his standing against Mr. Ko.
Mr. Ko is running as an independent, though his political views generally align with the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, the main opposition party. The D.P.P. is not fielding a candidate in the race and has thrown its support behind him. His campaign has focused on encouraging civic participation and trying to transcend the divide between the Kuomintang and those who favor closer ties with China, known as the blue camp, and the D.P.P. and others who support an independent Taiwan, the “green” camp.
At times seeming to echo Barack Obama’s line that there are no blue states or red states, Mr. Ko says, “Doctors’ white scrubs don’t differentiate between blue or green. In the medical profession, there’s only right and wrong.”
Accentuating his image as an outsider, Mr. Ko eschews a suit and tie for a collared shirt in most campaign appearances. His inexperience in government led many to believe his lead in opinion polls would eventually evaporate in the face of the Kuomintang’s wealth and well developed party apparatus, built over decades of authoritarian rule.
But Mr. Lien, who also lacks government experience, has failed to capitalize on his opponent’s weaknesses, despite his political pedigree.
He has emphasized economic themes, touting his investing experience and work as chairman of the company that manages Taipei’s smartcard system for public transit and other services. But his family connections and personal wealth have hurt him at a time when the public is increasingly concerned about the gap between rich and poor, and the high cost of housing in Taipei, said Lin Jih-wen, a political scientist at Academia Sinica, a state-funded research institute in Taipei.
“He’s too young, too inexperienced and doesn’t seem to understand the ordinary lives of people in Taipei,” Mr. Lin said.
Elections in Taiwan can be difficult to predict, with opinion polls sometimes overstating the support for the D.P.P. and other parties in the pro-independence, green camp. Nonetheless, Mr. Ko has consistently maintained a double-digit lead, which most analysts believe will hold.
The race has implications beyond Taipei, Taiwan’s capital and largest city. Each of the last three presidents has previously served as Taipei mayor, and the election has focused on national concerns, especially Taiwan’s relationship with China, which claims Taiwan as its own.
This spring, demonstrators opposed to the Kuomintang’s support of a free-trade deal with China, which critics said would have given China greater influence over Taiwan’s economy, took to the streets and occupied the national legislature for more than three weeks.
Those protests, known as the Sunflower Movement, loom over the Taipei race. Mr. Lien, who met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing last year, has been attacked by the opposition for favoring stronger ties with China.
The benefits of Mr. Ma’s pursuit of closer economic relations with China have failed to trickle down to average voters, also dealing Mr. Lien a disadvantage, said Jonathan Sullivan, a China scholar at the University of Nottingham.
“Lien is simply unable to convince that he is anything but what he is, a privileged princeling from one of Taiwan’s richest and politically powerful families,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Lien’s halfhearted attempts to appear down to earth have been followed by gaffes revealing his status and thinking.”
After coming under repeated attack for his family’s wealth, Mr. Lien responded in a campaign brochure that the Buddha “was a prince who enlightened people.” While his point was that family background did not predetermine policy, his comparing himself to the Buddha was seen as grandiose.
Mr. Ko is not immune from similar criticism. As chairman of National Taiwan University Hospital’s traumatology department, he too is a member of Taiwan’s elite. And he has been gaffe-prone in campaign appearances, notably when he said one young female candidate’s appearance made her better suited to working as a receptionist. He later apologized for the comment.
“Although he is not a seasoned politician, Ko has deftly rolled with the punches and has shown an innate skill in turning Lien’s attacks against himself,” Mr. Sullivan said.
During a televised debate, when asked whether a candidate who had pro-independence leanings could serve as a high-level state official, Mr. Ko responded it was the “cross-strait compradors,” the Kuomintang officials pursuing closer ties with China, whose patriotism should be questioned.
If the governing party loses Taipei, the central city of Taichung could compound its troubles. There Jason Hu, who has run the city for 12 years, faces a strong challenge from Lin Chia-lung of the D.P.P.
“That race is important for the D.P.P.,” said Mr. Lin, the political scientist.
“If they are able to take Taichung, in terms of the next presidential election, the D.P.P. map enlarges, and with their problems in Taipei in the north, the KMT is in bad shape,” he said, referring to the Kuomintang.
Pichi Chuang/Reuters台北市長選舉執政黨候選人連勝文在街市上與支持者握手。
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