Hundreds of thousands of supporters rallied yesterday in Taipei to support Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who is seeking a second term in the island's presidential election to be held on Saturday.
'Over the past three years, the nation has been back on the right track,' Ma, 61, said in front of the Taipei City Hall at the heart of the city on 'Super Sunday' - the last Sunday before the polls.
'We should make no change in the direction of development ... but move forward with it,' he said, specifically citing the island's robust economy, clean government, sustainable environment and peaceful cross-strait and international relations.
In 2008, Ma defeated Frank Hsieh Chang-ting, who was representing the scandal-plagued Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), by a huge margin of more than 2 million votes.
Shortly after delivering his remarks yesterday, Ma led a six-kilometre parade accompanied by other political heavyweights from the current ruling Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, of which Ma is chairman. Those in attendance included Wu Po-hsiung, the party's honorary president; Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin and New Taipei City (Xinbei) mayor Eric Chu Li-luan, a rising political star with the KMT.
Ma and his entourage were surrounded by supporters waving flags and chanting slogans about winning the election.
