Universities Given Focus for Upcoming Election

Both the KMT and the DPP are turning to first time voters for the upcoming 2012 presidential election, with both candidates touring the country's university lecture halls and ingratiating themselves with students, who studies show are still mostly undecided.

DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen

For the past few months, President Ma Ying-jeou has been meeting university students and making media appearances about once a week. Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP Chairperson and candidate, says she plans to catch up. Tsai says her approach will be different from that of Ma's, focusing more on youth-oriented issues like student competition, the changing global landscape, and the experience of growing up, bolstered by her own experiences as a student in the US and the UK. Even during the DPP primaries, Tsai relied heavily on university students to boost her prescence in online blogs, discussions, and media appearances.

Tsai and the DPP observe that Ma and the KMT are out of touch with today's youth. Notably, a KMT lawmaker was forced to retract her comments when she suggested a "slap in the face" for students who did not stand up to speak with Ma at a question-and-answer session. A poll by cable news channel TVBS showed that although Ma leads Tsai in the polls by 1%, Tsai had a 9% lead over Ma in the age 20-29 category.

I think this focus on first-time voters and university students was at least in part brought upon by the 2008 US presidential election, where a large portion of Obama's base was the youth vote. Both parties now are looking to capitalize on this, but I think the DPP has the drop here because of its more liberal image, as opposed to the more conservative and traditionalist KMT. Though, I don't think it will be as much of a deciding factor as it was in the US because party split is ideological, but also in part involves heritage. People who immigrated or are the descendants of immigrants in 1949 with the remnants of the Nationalist Chinese government are typically more sympathetic to the KMT, whilst native Taiwanese and descendents of Ming and Qing dynasty settlers tend to identify more with the DPP.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/05/09/2003502792