Presidential election frontrunner Ma vows 'new Taiwan' in final push
Posted: 22 March 2008 0407 hrs

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TAICHUNG, Taiwan: Presidential election frontrunner Ma Ying-jeou promised Friday to create "a new Taiwan" as he rallied supporters in a final push for votes the evening before the island goes to the polls.

His rival, ruling party chief Frank Hsieh, also mustered his supporters as Taiwan's election race reached a climax after an often bitter campaign marked by concern over the slowing economy and relations with China.

"Let me be the creator of a new Taiwan to defend the interests of the country and the people," Ma told more than 100,000 cheering supporters of his Kuomintang party in a carnival atmosphere in the central city of Taichung.

"I promise you a clean and sunshine government where no civil servants are corrupt. I will listen to the voices of the people and be modest, admit my mistakes if I do something wrong."

He said he wanted to make Taiwan a "Switzerland of the East," an economic haven and centre for innovation.

He vowed not to change the self-ruled island's status quo, which means no formal independence -- that would infuriate China -- but no reunification with the mainland, from which it split in 1949 after a civil war.

"Please vote for change, for a better future for Taiwan which is open, prosperous and forward-looking," he said in a speech carried by video link to rallies in the capital Taipei and the southern city of Kaohsiung.

Hsieh drew tens of thousands of his party faithful to Taipei where he laid into Ma, accusing him of secretly having US residency and being prepared to sell out Taiwan.

"Taiwan is my homeland, Taiwan is my only choice," he thundered. "Even if I lose I will stay in Taiwan and I will share the same fate with you."

"Even if Taiwan becomes a second Tibet I will stay in Taiwan," added Hsieh, who has in the past week repeatedly used China's crackdown in the Himalayan region to warn that a Ma administration could leave the island facing the same fate. - AFP/ac