With the presidential vote barely three weeks away, Taiwan's nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party candidate Ma Ying-jeou has widened his lead over rival Frank Hsieh of the ruling party, a poll said Sunday.
The survey of 1,264 people by television network TVBS indicated that Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had failed to cash in on last week's huge rally honouring thousands killed in a 1947 crackdown by KMT troops.
Ma's support rose to 54 percent, up five percent compared with last week, while support for Hsieh rose from 19 percent to 20 percent.
During the opening of a special exhibition about 1947's so-called February 28 incident, President Chen Shui-bian of the DPP tried to evoke the painful memories of the islanders.
Chen urged to the public to "remember the lesson" of the massacre, which he blames on late nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, and launched a thinly veiled attack on the KMT which is trying to win his presidency from his DPP.