By Prensa Latina
Taipei : Taiwanese voters will elect the 113 members of their Legislative Assembly on Saturday to decide the future of the island, which current President Chen Shui-bian wants to push toward independence.
Chen and his Progressive Democratic Party and the Kuomintang Nationalist Party are the main contenders in this campaign, in which every kind of accusation and insult are used.
The Kuomintang Nationalist Party and other small opposition groups count on a slight majority in the Assembly, but now they want a significant win to return to power in the March 22 presidential elections.
Two political visions are declared for Taiwan, a Chinese island with 23 million inhabitants.
Chen and his party advocate Taiwan’s separation from China and, for this reason, have closed local institutions and banks of Chinese lineage.
They are also fostering a dangerous referendum, parallel to the March 22 presidential elections, to petition entry to the United Nations under the name of Taiwan.
The Kuomintang, an old enemy of Beijing, has for several years proposed a policy of rapprochement and good relations with the continent, and considers it necessary to clearly win the elections with two-thirds of the Assembly seats to foster its program.
Chinese authorities have made it clear they would never tolerate the separation of Taiwan from China, whatever measure they would have to take to stop it.