Presidential Race Enters Final Week

Taiwan's presidential hopefuls make their final pitches to voters as campaigning enters its final week.

Transcript

00:00 On the campaign trail, there's still time for a few more photo ops, but not many.

00:06 Saturday is election day, when Taiwan picks its next president.

00:10 And so the three candidates are choosing their parting words before handing it over to voters.

00:15 They've all picked some challenging terrain.

00:18 As part of his final pitch, the Democratic Progressive Party's Lai Ching-de

00:22 made four rapid-fire stops in different regions of the country Sunday.

00:26 Though his party's held the presidency for eight years,

00:29 Lai's message is that he won't just bring four more years of the same.

00:33 It's something he's especially tried to drive home in Taoyuan, in Taiwan's north.

00:37 The city is home to many immigrants and second-generation Taiwanese,

00:41 and is traditionally a tough place for his party to crack.

00:55 Lai's two rivals have headed south to the city of Kaohsiung.

00:59 It's a stronghold for Lai's party, but in 2018, it went sharply to the opposition,

01:04 showing it is possible to flip.

01:06 The Kuomintang's candidate, Ho You-yi, has zoomed in on issues he thinks

01:10 will win him points in this important city, especially the death penalty,

01:14 something Taiwan's voters widely support.

01:23 Ho has an important backer in this city,

01:26 the man behind the historic 2018 flip, former mayor Han Kuo-yu.

01:30 Though Han lost a recall vote, he still carries political weight

01:34 and could boost opposition turnout.

01:36 But this won't be a repeat of 2018.

01:39 A new force, the Taiwan People's Party, has split the opposition.

01:43 It has its own base, and its leaders are even questioning

01:47 where Han's loyalties really lie.

01:50 I can understand that he is under a lot of pressure.

01:53 He must cooperate with the operators.

01:55 This is different from what he told me in private.

01:58 Taiwan's laws don't allow the release of any public polls so close to the election,

02:03 so the only way to gauge the impact of these final appeals

02:06 will be to see how people vote on election day.

02:09 In these final days, the three candidates can only hope to sway the swayable,

02:14 and that the number of undecided voters they can win over

02:17 will be enough to push them over the finish line.

02:20 Justin Wu and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.

02:24 (whooshing)