PINGTUNG, Taiwan - Hundreds of women waved their mobile phone flashlights in the air as they swayed to the music and sang along.
Some jumped on chairs to get a better view of the stage. Others shouted “I love you” as they held up their placards.
The scene was straight out of a concert, except that their idol at the event was no pop star – it was Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te.
The 64-year-old, who is also Taiwan’s current Vice-President, had held a campaign rally for a group of women supporters in southern Pingtung county, and the reception was euphoric.
Looking flushed after singing and dancing, rather awkwardly, to the campaign’s theme song, Team Taiwan, Mr Lai said with a grin: “My face is bright red now. I’m very moved (by all of you).”
Attended by 1,200 women of varying ages, the Dec 21 hotel ballroom event was Mr Lai’s final stop on the first day of a four-day whirlwind campaign tour around the island until Christmas Eve.
With just two weeks to go before Taiwan heads to the polls on Jan 13 to elect its next president, all three candidates are stepping up efforts to drum up support for a pivotal vote that will shape Taipei’s relations with Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island.
According to opinion polls, Mr Lai is the front runner to win the race, ahead of Mr Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Dr Ko Wen-je of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
The two opposition parties are seen as more China-friendly, in contrast to the independence-leaning DPP.
In a Dec 28 survey by leading pollster My Formosa, Mr Lai received 40 per cent of support, a considerable lead over Mr Hou’s 28.9 per cent. Dr Ko trails behind with 17.6 per cent of support.
Still, this is no time for Mr Lai to sit back, say analysts.
“Lai has consistently received around the same amount of support for months now and has had trouble seeing that number go up,” said Assistant Professor Ma Chun-wei, a political scientist at Taipei’s Tamkang University.
“The key now for each of the candidates is to attract as many median voters as possible.”
Taiwan’s campaign events are traditionally loud and colourful, and they were no different this time.
During Dr Ko’s walkabout at Taipei’s Nanmen Market on the morning of Dec 21, stallholders rushed to greet the candidate with raucous cheers and claps.
The iconic traditional foods market had reopened in October after nearly four years of extensive renovations – a project that Dr Ko, 64, had overseen in his previous post as Taipei mayor.
Welcoming Dr Ko into the shiny new building, Mr Wang Chuan-kuo, chairman of the market association, declared: “Now we cannot refer to Nanmen as a market any more because it has become a tourist destination.”
The owner of a stall selling snacks wished Dr Ko luck by presenting him with a basket of bao (steamed buns) and zong zi (glutinous rice dumplings) – a wordplay on the Mandarin term bao zhong, which means “guaranteed victory”.
Later, Dr Ko entered a stall to try his hand at making song gao, or steamed rice sponge cakes. The steam instantly fogged up the candidate’s glasses, to which an onlooker remarked was “very cute”.
Although Dr Ko is lagging behind in the opinion polls, experts say the former surgeon remains a wild card and is a formidable third force to be reckoned with.
Known for speaking off the cuff, he is particularly popular among young voters who have grown weary of a political landscape long dominated by the two main parties, the DPP and the KMT.
In a Dec 27 survey by Taiwanese broadcaster MNews, 51 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 said they supported Dr Ko, while 25.7 per cent said they were behind Mr Lai. Mr Hou received 10.2 per cent of support from voters in this age bracket.
With only 3 per cent of the KMT members under the age of 40, observers say there is a perception among the young that the party does not understand their needs.
It does not help that the KMT’s Mr Hou, 66, and his running mate Jaw Shaw-kong, 73, are the oldest among the presidential election contenders.
“For young people who have grown up with little ties to China, they fear that the KMT may not be able to stand up to an increasingly aggressive Beijing,” said Prof Ma.
But the youth vote is impossible to ignore, with people aged 20 to 34 accounting for about one-fifth of Taiwan’s 19.5 million electorate, including one million first-time voters.
It was unsurprising then, to find members of the KMT Youth League at one of the party’s biggest campaign rallies in recent days calling for more support from young voters.
At the Dec 23 evening event held in front of Taipei’s Presidential Office, Mr Kai Teng, head of the party’s youth group, was spotted roaming around and speaking to the elderly there.
“Please go home and tell your children to vote for Hou Yu-ih too,” the 29-year-old repeated as he made his way through the crowd.
An estimated 80,000 people had thronged the event in raincoats despite the chilly temperatures and sporadic rain, though the overwhelming majority looked to be middle-aged or older.
Back in Pingtung, Mr Lai highlighted the importance of gender diversity in a democratic society. After having worked under Taiwan’s first woman president for six years – including two as premier – he picked a woman to be his running mate for the 2024 presidential election. Ms Hsiao Bi-khim was most recently Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Washington.
Pledging to prioritise more opportunities for women at the workplace, Mr Lai said: “I am certain that in the future, President Tsai Ing-wen will not be Taiwan’s only woman president.”
According to the same Dec 28 My Formosa survey, 38.1 per cent of women said they supported Mr Lai, ahead of 31.8 per cent who were behind Mr Hou. Dr Ko, who has been criticised in the past for making sexist comments, appealed to only 14.3 per cent of the women surveyed.
As Mr Lai walked out of the ballroom, several women rushed forward hoping for a selfie or a handshake with him.
“For us, you must win. We really, really love you,” one female supporter shouted.
Mr Lai chuckled and waved.
