Both sides woo youth in Taiwan's elections

TAIPEI - Taiwan newspapers are plastered with a picture of a beaming young soldier with his arm around his sweetheart as hearts bubble up from the foreground.

An advertisement for a romance novel? No, it's a Taiwan presidential election campaign advertisement for Nationalist challenger Lien Chan's policy of cutting military service to three months from two years, part of a move to create an elite all-volunteer force suited for modern high-tech war.

"Why worry? I'll be back in three months," the soldier tells his girl.

Keen to shed the image of a party run by doddering old men who retreated to Taiwan after defeat by Communist forces in China's 1949 civil war, the Nationalists are combining glitz and policy to win over young voters.

The young are a crucial swing vote in the closest election since the president was first chosen by universal suffrage in 1996. Middle-aged, middle-class voters prefer Lien, the elderly and less-educated favour native-born President Chen Shui-bian.

"Older people are set in their ways, but you can convince the young to change," said legislator Lin Yi-shin, head of the Nationalists' youth department.

"They are more likely to look at candidates' policies and actions, but might also vote for you for no reason except that they feel like it," Lin said.

Taiwan's minimum voting age is 20, and Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- effective at attracting young voters -- estimates 1.57 million first-time voters in the election, or 10 percent of total turnout.

"At this late stage, both sides are fighting for middle-ground voters and any smart politicians will fight for the youth vote," said Liu Huang-liang, deputy head of the DPP youth campaign headquarters in Taipei.

The DPP has historically been more successful in capturing the youth vote because ideas come from young staffers, said Liu, a denim-clad 23-year-old graduate student.

"We don't necessarily have to be political. Young people are naturally drawn to A-bian because he is young and has fresher ideas," he said, using 54-year-old Chen's nickname.

The Nationalist Party admits 67-year old Lien had less appeal to young men and women in the 2000 election, winning only an estimated 10 percent of their vote.

"Young people are naturally drawn to Chen Shui-bian's reformist stance," said the Nationalists' Lin. "But this year we estimate that we are in an even battle and that's a big improvement on 10 percent."

Lien has attacked Chen's unpopular reforms to school entrance examinations - the target of a Nationalist television commercial featuring a turntable-scratching rapper - but reducing military service has been his ace card.

"I think a volunteer army would be more fair. Rich people and politicians always seem to find a way to keep their children out of the army," said 26 year-old Wang Jin-hua.

"If I didn't have to join the army I might have saved more money by now," said Wang, adding that he may vote for Lien in a protest against the weak economy under Chen's rule.

Chen has criticised Lien's policy on conscription as naive, and wants to keep it unchanged in the face of China's threats to recover by force an island is sees as a rebel province.

"I think three months of military service would be great, but it's too late to help me," said Raymond Lin, 22, who is set to join the military after he graduates from university in June.

"My only hope right now is that I will be sent to an easy unit," said Lin, who has yet to decide where to cast his first vote.

Asked if he was worried about breaking up with his girlfriend while in the military for two years, Lin paused.

"I think this is something every guy in the fourth year of university worries about," he finally said.

- REUTERS