The numbers that most people in Taiwan — and many other places worldwide — are interested in today will not come out, officially at least, until about 9pm or whenever the Central Election Commission begins to release the results of the nine-in-one elections.
However, even before the 15,559 voting stations close at 4pm, the numbers involved in today’s elections are eye-opening.
Government figures show that 18.5 million Taiwanese are eligible to vote, with a record 11,130 directly elected local government positions to be filled, including the mayors of the six special municipalities and 375 municipal councilors; the commissioners and mayors of 16 counties and provincial cities along with 532 county and city councilors; 198 township mayors and 2,096 township councilors; six Aboriginal district representatives and 50 Aboriginal district council representatives; and 7,851 village and borough wardens.
There are 19,762 candidates nationwide.
Given all those seats up for grabs, it is not surprising that there has also been a reported high in the number of people under investigation for vote-buying, election-related violence and other irregularities.
Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) on Wednesday said that more than 4,000 allegations had been reported and 10,041 people were being investigated.
The Ministry of the Interior has mobilized 16,124 police officers, and 24,251 community workers and civilian volunteers to guard the polling stations.
While not record-setting, there has also been an amazing number of people in China — in addition to the almost 1 million China-based Taiwanese businesspeople — interested in the polls, including those who wish to influence them, as a Reuters news agency report on page 9 details.
Newspapers in Hong Kong and even China’s Global Times have reported that a number of Chinese able to travel to Taiwan have seen the campaigns as a tourist attraction, with sina.com even publishing a visitors’ guide with some dos and don’ts.
Today’s polls are local, but their influence will be felt nationwide and they will have a major impact on the 2016 presidential and legislative elections.
One critical issue is the future direction of the nation. Will it be one which is ever more economically reliant on China, or one in which Taiwan retains its own identity?
However, voters should remember that what is crucial for any level of government is electing candidates who are best able to act in step with the wishes of their constituents, who promise efficiency and accountability, and whose policy platforms are coherent and responsible.
Taiwan has seen the emergence of a more civil-oriented society in recent years, one in which grassroots groups have battled to prevent local and central-level officials from running roughshod over the populace in a headstrong drive for development.
This is partly due to a weariness with the machinations of the major political parties and the entrenched power system that the more than two-and-a-half decades of democratic advancement since the lifting of martial law have yet to fully disrupt.
Hopefully an overwhelming majority of the 18.5 million voters choose to exercise their democratic right today to cast their ballots. It is a right that has been hard won and one that too many people in the world still do not share.
It is also a right that too many people who should know better seem all too willing to give up.
Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) repeated diatribes against democratic societies this year, with the refrain that “democracy does not put food on the table,” should be accepted as an exercise of his right to free speech, but those who now enjoy the freedoms that Gou is so dismissive of should resoundingly condemn the viewpoint that he espouses — through the ballot box.
Let us make the numbers count.
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