Taiwan's undecided voters hold the key

Former President Lee Teng-hui greets supporters on the street in Taipei

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- Rival political parties are playing the "national unity" card as undecided voters will likely make the difference in hotly contested parliamentary polls in Taiwan on Saturday.

With voting to begin in less than 24 hours, not one of the three major parties, the ruling, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Kuomintang (KMT) and the People's First Party is likely to win enough seats to control the new legislature.

However, the appeal to unity sounds hollow because even parties with loose partnerships are squabbling with each other, and there are severe internal divisions within the major parties.

Opposition leader Lien Chan, also chairman of the KMT, is trying to convince voters that only the KMT can form a nonpartisan administration geared toward economic growth and improving ties with the mainland.

Lien said he would set up an "All-People Alliance to Protect the Constitution" together with parties including the PFP, which shares such KMT positions as eventual reunification with China.

However, during the election campaign, Lien and PFP leader James Soong have quarreled over strategies.

Soong, a former senior KMT cadre, has refused to consider proposals that his new party return to the fold of the KMT.

Crossing over

Lien also has to contend with the fact that after the elections, more than a dozen of KMT legislators, mostly native-Taiwanese lawmakers with residual attachment to ousted KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui, may cross over to the DPP camp.

By contrast, Chen announced earlier this week that he would establish a National Stability Alliance, a non-partisan administration after the elections.

The president has hinted he may invite non-party affiliated politicians or opposition politicians such as the PFP's Soong to set up the next cabinet.

Chen's critics say, however, that the DPP chief may only be able to hook up with former president Lee's new pro-independence party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union.

Moreover, Chen also has to defuse factional rivalry within the DPP. In several instances, different DPP factions are backing different candidates.

Polls the week have shown undecided voters may account for more than 25% of the electorate.

Analysts say Chen and Lien may attract a good chunk of undecided voters if they can come up with a convincing plan for forming a non-partisan, "Taiwan-first" administration.