The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will win the presidential election by about 160,000 votes against the opposition pan-blue presidential ticket featuring Lien Chan (連戰) and James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Optimistic about the election, the director of the DPP's Public Opinion Survey Center, Chen Chun-lin (
"The DPP is expected to beat the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) alliance by 167,707 ballots, a 1.2 percent vote difference," Chen said yesterday.
PHOTO: CHEN TSEH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen estimated there would be an 80 percent voter turnout from among the nation's total of 16,504,179 eligible voters.
In the major six electoral districts around the nation, Chen said that the DPP would lose in northern Taiwan's Taipei City and Taipei County by 291,187 votes, as well as in the Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli areas by some 270,035 votes.
In central Taiwan's Taichung, Changhua and Nantou areas, the DPP is drawn in a tight match with the KMT and is estimated to lose by some 4,408 votes.
PHOTO: CHEN TSEH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
However, in the DPP's stronghold in southern Taiwan, the party will win with an estimate of 467,722 votes over the pan-blue alliance in Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties and by another 371,925 votes in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas.
As for eastern Taiwan's Ilan, Hualien and Taitung counties and the offshore islands, the DPP predicted that it would lose by about 106,309 votes against the blue alliance.
Regarding public support for the referendum, DPP campaign executive director Chiou I-jen (
Chiou yesterday also disclosed that the KMT has tried to bribe voters in southern Taiwan by purchasing identification cards -- required personal IDs to cast votes, and promised free tours to voters on election day.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
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