The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) vote allocation strategy will be exploited to its utmost in Tainan City, where the three DPP candidates together with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) candidate have decided to share the pan-green vote.
Although a decision was made in late September for the DPP and TSU to wage a joint electoral campaign, this is the first time the DPP has also extended its vote allocation strategy to include a candidate from another party.
The vote allocation strategy is one of the key's to the DPP's legislative election campaign. It's a strategy born of Taiwan's "multi-member district, single vote" electoral system.
Under the strategy, the party determines in advance which voters will vote for which candidates, so that votes can be divided up equally. It gives instructions to its supporters, typically a week or two before the election, telling them to vote for a candidate according to a specified criteria -- for example, the supporter's birth month.
The strategy is meant to ensure that the party and its allies gain the maximum number of seats, and to avoid a scenario whereby the party's most popular candidate or candidates get far more votes than they need, while less-known candidates get too few to get elected.
In Tainan City, 12 candidates are running for the six seats. The three DPP candidates, Wang Sing-nan (
The four have already created a slogan, "all-season reds." That refers to having one candidate for each of the four seasons, with the lucky color red indicating they'll all win reelection. Though the allocation system has not been finalized in Tainan, it may see pan-green supporters casting ballots for a candidate based on which of the four seasons they were born in.
Lai said that the joint campaign was helping knit the pan-green camp more tightly together.
"The joint campaign has started to show its effect, and it has united the voters more," Lai said. "The voters have shown more confidence, and they have approved of this inter-party joint campaign."
Last week, after TSU chairman Huang Chu-wen (
But the DPP and the TSU do not necessarily get along in all constituencies.
In the Taipei City Second Constituency (Taipei City south), where DPP lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (
Also, the inclusion of the TSU's Chien Lin in the vote allocation system in Tainan City does not mean that the DPP is the one helping the TSU. Polls show that Chien Lin could likely hold her seat on her own, and even have votes to spare to give to the weaker DPP candidates.
One reason for that is that Chien Lin has performed better in the legislature than Wang and Tang, giving frequent press conferences to raise awareness of issues, mostly related to China or medicine.
The recent polls also show that while Lai, who plans to run for Tainan mayor next year, has a comfortable lead, Chien Lin enjoys roughly the same popularity as Wang, and Tang falls behind. Still, all four are expected to win reelection.
"The joint vote allocation idea was a DPP initiative, and they had been asking us [to join them] very eagerly. They invited us to join three or four times," Chien Lin said.
Lai also confirmed that the DPP took the initiative in the joint campaign. He publicized the idea as early as June, holding a press conference in Tainan calling for a joint DPP-TSU campaign.
The pan-green camp is expected to hold all its incumbent seats in Tainan City, with the two remaining seats likely filled by pan-blue and independent candidates.
The incumbents for those two seats are the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Wang Yu-ting (
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS