Taiwan's election campaign turns negative

TAIPEI -- Mudslinging and negative campaigning have overtaken serious political debate in the run-up to Taiwan's presidential election, with the ruling party candidate accusing his front-runner rival of lacking loyalty to the self-governed island.

The March 22 election is expected to set the course for Taiwan's economy and its troubled relations with China for the next four years.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party's Frank Hsieh has spent the past month accusing the Nationalist Party's Ma Ying-joeu of holding permanent residence status in the United States, a charge Ma denies.

Ma says he held the status more than 30 years ago and it has long since lost its validity. But Hsieh questions if the status would lapse automatically as Ma claims.

Hsieh's camp has also alleged that Ma sent his sister to the Chinese mainland months ago to lobby for support among Taiwanese businesspeople there.

On Saturday, Hsieh said Ma sent an aide to meet an official from the de facto U.S. Embassy in Taipei in an attempt to officially invalidate the status.

Ma said the meeting was part of a regular exchange with U.S. officials, and he questioned if the DPP government learned about the meeting through eavesdropping.

Ho Han-chun, a political scientist at National Taipei University, said Hsieh's negative campaign may have failed to sway undecided voters but has energized DPP supporters who were disheartened with President Chen Shui-bian's eight-year rule, which was marred by alleged widespread corruption and mismanagement of the economy.

Ho, who has close ties with both presidential camps, said polls conducted most recently by both campaigns showed Hsieh's gap with Ma has narrowed to 10-15 points from more than 20 points a month ago.

"The two candidates do not differ so much policy-wise," Ho said. "They both have their strengths and weakness, but Hsieh never possessed residence status of any foreign countries and he would continue to play up this difference."

(Agencies)