By Lee I-chia / Staff repoter
Facing critics asking whether Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) campaign team has exaggerated the number of supporters who attended his campaign rally in Tainan on Saturday, Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), yesterday defended him by saying that he is at a disadvantage regarding media coverage.
Ko held his first major campaign rally on a busy business section of Zunwang Road in Tainan’s West Central District (中西區) on Saturday afternoon.
The host of the event, TPP spokesman Adam Lee (李頂立), on Saturday said that the number of attendees had reached more than 10,000 by 4:40pm.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
A news release from the TPP also said that more than 10,000 people had attended the rally.
Political pundit Chang Yu-hsuan (張禹宣) late on Saturday wrote on Facebook that Ko held the rally in Tainan’s tourist shopping district, which made all pedestrians and shoppers look like they were his supporters.
It was ridiculous that only 1,800 chairs were provided at the rally, but the party claimed more 10,000 supporters were in attendance, Chang said.
Political commentator Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) yesterday posted an aerial photograph of the rally on Facebook, and wrote that the head of the TPP’s Tainan campaign headquarters had said that 50,000 supporters had attended the rally.
However, by using the road’s size and the number of people gathered in a section of it to estimate the total number of attendees, there were only about 4,420 people, Lee said.
Some local media reported that store owners had complained that the road closure had affected their business, especially on a sunny Saturday afternoon when more customers were expected, while others said the event was loud and a lot of trash was left behind.
In response to media queries for comment, Chen said that Ko is at a disadvantage when it comes to media coverage.
She said that she does not take pundits’ remarks too seriously, as the way the media often present Ko is not the man she knows from their daily interactions.
At the rally, Ko called on his supporters to “start a revolution from your living rooms” by urging senior members of their families to come out and vote for him on Jan. 13 and give Taiwanese politics an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, as Taiwan has seen little progress over the past three decades under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
If elected, he would refrain from “profligate” spending as he said has been seen under the DPP administration and would never leave future generations in debt, Ko said.
He was referring to his ability to pay off NT$57 billion (US$1.8 billion) in debt owed by the Taipei City Government to its residents during his two terms as Taipei mayor from 2014 until last year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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