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Election commision ends count for city councilors

"If the pan-blue camp nominates too many candidates, these parties' individual candidates will receive less votes than the pan-green camp's candidates."

Emile Sheng, political science professor at Soochow University

The Central Election Commission yesterday announced that Taipei City would have to elect a total of 52 councilors and Kaohsiung City is required to elect 44 in the special municipalities' mayoral and councilor elections in December.

The five major parties have all completed nominating their candidates for the councilor elections.

For the Taipei City councilors' election, the DPP nominated 27 candidates, the KMT nominated 22, the TSU named nine, the PFP named 16 and the New Party, six, which totals 80 competing for 52 seats.

For the Kaohsiung City councilors' election, the DPP nominated 17 candidates, the PFP nominated nine, the New Party named only one, the KMT nominated 19 candidates and the TSU, three.

The number of councilor positions is based on the two cities' populations. According to the regulations, a special municipality should elect at least 41 councilors. When the population is between 1.25 million to 1.50 million, one extra position is added for every 70,000 voters. The regulations, however, stipulate that there can be no more than 52 positions for any special municipality.

Reacting to the possibility that the pan-blue camp might nominate too many candidates for the Taipei City councilors' election, Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), head of the KMT's Taipei City branch office, appealed to the voters to vote for KMT candidates instead of pan-blue camp candidates, who would represent the KMT, PFP and the New Party.

"We call on Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) supporters to vote for KMT nominees, otherwise, Mayor Ma's policies might be obstructed by other political parties," Ting told the Taipei Times.

Emile Sheng (盛治仁), a political science professor at Soochow University, said that the pan-blue camp made the same mistake of nominating too many candidates in last year's legislative elections.

"If the pan-blue camp nominates too many candidates, these parties' individual candidates will receive less votes than the pan-green camp's candidates," Sheng said.

The CEC, meanwhile, also announced that every mayoral candidate in Taipei City would be allowed to spend NT$24.76 million for the campaign, while mayoral candidates for Kaohsiung City would be allowed to spend NT$18.42 million for the election.
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