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Campaign Special ( Results ) - Southern Taiwan goes green

By Chiu Yu-tzu
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004, Page 14

The grandchildren of Li Han, 103, help her to cast a referendum ballot in Tainan County yesterday. PHOTO: LIU WAN-CHUN, TAIPEI TIMES

Residents in southern counties yesterday used their ballots to show that the region continues to be a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stronghold.

Pan-blue supporters, however, vowed to support their leaders' call to re-examine the result.

The result was a strong showing for the DPP all the way from Yunlin County to Changhwa County. More than 55 percent of those who cast ballots in the south backed the DPP's candidates, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).

In Kaohsiung City, widely regarded as a DPP stronghold, thousands of pan-green supporters waved flags and banners outside the party's Kaohsiung chapter, shouting "get elected" in Hoklo, commonly referred to as Taiwanese.

Diehard green-camp supporters responded enthusiastically to the vote figures as they came in.

The crowd's cheers mixed with the noise of fireworks and air horns.

Civic achievements

Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), also a strategist for the DPP, said city residents' performance was touching and showed their strong ties to the party.

"After such keen competition, we need to stay calm to preserve our democratic result."

Lin Yun-chien, Kaohsiung deputy mayor

"People's support for the DPP can be attributed to political achievements in the city," Hsieh said.

More than 50 percent of those who cast ballots in Kaohsiung, over 500,000 people, voted for Chen.

The pan-blue camp won about 398,000 votes.

Deputy Mayor Lin Yun-chien (林永堅) brought up the tap-water issue again to remind residents of the DPP's achievements in the city.

"After such keen competition, we need to stay calm to preserve our democratic result," Lin said.

He said this was necessary to avoid a political crisis stemming from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) call for the electoral result to be re-examined.

However, Lin Shiang-nung (林享能), in charge of the pan-blue camp's campaign in Kaohsiung, claimed there were irregularities at three polling stations.

Lin Shiang-nung said three blue-camp supporters found that their ballots were missing when they went to a polling station in the Sanmin District. Several minutes after being told there were no ballots for them, election staff produced the ballots.

"We Kaohsiung supporters will support our candidate Lien Chan's appeal," Lin Shiang-nung said.

In Kaohsiung County, the base of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), also director-general of the blue camp's national campaign headquarters, Lien and his running-mate, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), secured 302,900 votes, while the DPP got more than 345,000 votes.

According to Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political analyst and an assistant fellow of politics at Academia Sinica, the DPP won over people who supported Lien in the 2000 election.

"In addition, the shooting incident aroused support for DPP," Hsu said on a TV talk show.

In Chen's hometown, Hsichuang Village, Kuantien Township, Tainan County, 599 out of 699 eligible voters supported the DPP.

Kuantien residents celebrated the victory at about 7pm.

For the county as a whole, the DPP won 421,927 votes and the blue camp 229,284.

Yunlin county

In Yunlin County, one of the poorest rural areas in Taiwan and governed by independent Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) of the pan-blue camp, about 60 percent of voters threw their support behind the DPP. The DPP won 243,129 votes compared with the KMT-PFP alliance's 159,906.

In Chiayi County, the DPP gained 81,000 more votes than the blue camp.

In Pingtung County, the DPP won 299,321 votes and the blue camp 215,796.
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