With independent candidates faring poorly in Kaohsiung's mayoral race, the director of the Central News Agency's (CNA) domestic news section yesterday asked to be disciplined for prematurely publishing an analysis about Chang Po-ya's (張博雅) heavy defeat in the election.
"I have asked to be disciplined," said the director, Wang Tung-yu (王同禹), in a statement released to the media yesterday afternoon. "I made a mistake operating the computers, which resulted in the article being released this morning while voting was still taking place."
"It was a personal mistake of mine. It has absolutely nothing to do with CNA," Wang said.
The article, an analysis of the reasons for Chang's expected defeat, scheduled for publication last night after the results had been released, was inadvertently transmitted by the CNA's wire service at 10.16am yesterday morning. Polls opened at 8am and closed at 4pm.
The agency said in a statement, "We did not mean to influence the result of the election."
Despite widespread predictions that Chang would lose, she was furious about the mistake.
"CNA is a news institution with long history, it should not make such a mistake," she said. "The news had misled the public and had a negative impact on my results. The agency obviously has violated the election law."
CNA discovered the mistake 20 minutes after the story was filed and immediately withdrew it, publicly apologizing to Chang.
Although Chang originally threatened to sue the agency, she eventually accepted its apology.
Chang won a little over 10,000 votes, while another independent candidate, Shih Ming-te
After the election, Chang thanked her supporters, but further condemned anonymous letters sent to voters Friday claiming that she was withdrawing from the election.
Shih released a statement after the election yesterday, entitled My Anger, in which he said that he would continue to monitor Taiwan's politics and push for reform.
A journalist who used to work for the DPP told the Taipei Times that the future was bleak for Shih and Chang.
"It is quite unlikely that either of them will be elected in the future," the journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
He said that Chang announced that she would run in the election only after she was rejected by the legislature in her bid to become vice president of the Examination Yuan.
"That gives a negative impression to voters in Kaohsiung because it is not a convincing reason," he said.
As for Shih, the source said his ideals are not practical enough to attract the public's support.
He concluded that the two might seek other elected offices, maybe in the legislature.
"But I think there is almost no hope for them to be elected. Their political lives are basically over," he said.
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