Despite public concern over domestic matters, cross-strait and identity issues are expected to dominate next year's presidential election, analysts attending an international forum said yesterday. Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), director of Soochow University's department of political science, said that he believed most candidates would jump on the bandwagon of improving people's livelihoods, but they had to use something to differentiate themselves from other candidates. "This is where such sensitive and controversial matters as cross-strait issues, ethnicity and identity come into play," Lo said. "It is an easy and commonly used strategy to stir up voters' passions. By doing so, it helps mobilize support and boosts prospects." Lo was one of the panelists attending an international forum in Taipei yesterday. The event, titled "Presidential Primaries: Prospects and Impacts," was organized by the Taiwan Thinktank. Hawang Shiow-duan ( 黃秀端 ), president of the Taipei Society, agreed with Lo's argument. "Identity issues are emotional and are easily used to stir voters, while domestic issues are rather difficult," she said. "We see candidates publish their policy papers in elections but they just don't work." Arguing that unification and assimilation is a "false issue," Shih Cheng-feng ( 施正鋒 ), a public administration professor at Tamkang University, said that unequal distribution of resources among ethnic groups was the real problem. "As long as Mainlanders and Taiwanese fail to reconcile, this issue will remain for the next decade," he said. With cross-strait issues prominent in previous presidential elections, Michael Hsiao ( 蕭新煌 ), executive director of Academia Sinica's Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, said next year's presidential poll would be no exception. "Candidates promise everything ranging from welfare, education, environmental protection, women's rights and safeguarding human rights, but when it comes to cross-strait issues, you cannot easily promise anything," he said. Citing the example of the Executive Yuan's announcement of a 12-year educational program, Hsu Yung-ming ( 徐永明 ), an assistant research fellow in political science at Academia Sinica, said that it was unfortunate such issues received little news coverage. Analysts were divided over the possibility of a third ticket outside the two major parties, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). As former president Lee Teng-hui ( 李登輝 ) was eager to play a role in the election, Hsu said there was a possibility that someone would team up with him, although the pairing might stand little chance of winning. Hawang, however, said such a possibility was unlikely because previous elections had proved that candidates quitting their party and running independently were usually unsuccessful. Hsiao agreed, saying that both the DPP and KMT could not afford a split. Although it is too early to tell who would represent the DPP and KMT in the presidential election, Shih said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would be happy to see Vice President Annette Lu ( 呂秀蓮 ) and DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun run on the same ticket if Premier Su Tseng-chang ( 蘇貞昌 ) and former premier Frank Hsieh ( 謝長廷 ) refused to work together. The reason was simple, Shih said, because Lu and Yu would be more willing to pardon Chen if he was found guilty of graft after stepping down. If Su or Hsieh defect from the DPP to run as independent candidates, Shih said Lee might take advantage of the opportunity and recruit one of them to offer voters a third choice. As for the KMT, former chairman Ma Ying-jeou ( 馬英九 ) has to overcome the legal hurdle of his corruption indictment despite his determination to run. The Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) stipulates that those convicted of corruption, treason, sedition or organized crime are banned from running for the positions of president or vice president.