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Green's vote strategy a disaster

By Huang Tai-lin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004, Page 3

A worker in the Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei headquarters yesterday watches election results as they are reported on a TV news program. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

An inefficient vote-allocation strategy and an excessive number of nominees were attributed by many political observers as the main reasons behind the pan-green camp's unsuccessful bid to obtain a legislative majority in yesterday's elections.

Noting that there were many Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) or Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) candidates who failed to win by just a few votes, former DPP public survey center chief Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟) said the situation suggested there were "problems" with the vote-allocation strategy adopted by the pan-green camp.

"It appears that the vote-allocation strategy adopted by the DPP and the TSU did not help the pan-green camp, but ended up having the candidates fight among themselves for votes," Chen said, saying that some constituencies ended up with a lose-lose situation for both the DPP and the TSU.

"It is clear that the DPP will have to engage in a re-assessment over its electoral maneuvers and strategies," Chen said. Chen is deputy chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.

President Chen Shui-bian, center, gives a speech at the Democratic Progressive Party headquarters in the wake of the legislative elections. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

Agreeing with Chen's remarks, political commentator and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒) said the vote-allocation adopted by the pan-greens "has resulted in the TSU's votes being largely lured away by the DPP."

One mistake committed by the pan-green camp, said Chin, was that "the pan-green camp had unrealistic expectations that it could achieve major growth in its number of seats in the elections."

The goal of attaining a legislative majority led the DPP to nominate too many candidates in the election, Chin said, adding that it was another factor which the DPP needed to re-evaluate.

While admitting that the DPP had lost the elections since it did not meet its targeting goal of obtaining 101 seats in the new legislature, DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said the DPP had made gains in the number of votes it won in comparison to the last legislative election three years ago.

Citing statistics to support his remarks, Tsai said that the DPP this time had garnered 35.72 percent of the vote, a slight growth over the 33.38 percent of the vote in the 2001 legislative elections.

The DPP won 89 seats in yesterday's poll, two more than it won three years ago.

Noting that there were many pan-green candidates who enjoyed relatively high support rates before the election, yet obtained low votes in the poll yesterday, Tsai said these candidates' high approval rates had ended up working against them at the last minute when voters went to the polls.

Referring to the various topics talked about by Chen during the campaign period, such as the issue of changing the name of all relevant government agencies to include the word "Taiwan," Tsai added that it was possible that the voters did not have ample time to absorb and digest these issues, or to translate them into actual votes for the pan-greens in yesterday's polls.

"The DPP will re-assess its electoral maneuvers and operations after [yesterday's] elections," Tsai said.

The TSU, under the leadership of its spiritual leader, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), failed to achieve its goal of winning 20 seats.

The TSU, a pro-independence party, obtained only 12 seats in yesterday's elections.

"Overall, the TSU did not perform well," said Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences at Academia Sinica, adding that the party did not increase its number of seats as it had expected, although it had grown slightly in terms of total votes won.

The shrinking number of seats garnered by the TSU might put the party at risk of becoming an empty decoration, Chin said, adding that the next thing to observe was what move or gesture TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) would take to shoulder the responsibility for the TSU's poor performance.

While saying "the TSU's setback will probably harm Lee a bit," Chin noted that Lee has always been an individual of high ideals. Lee has never just had his sights solely on the elections, but rather on Taiwan's overall vision and future prospects, Chin said.

Admitting that the TSU's performance in yesterday's poll landed far short of its expectations, TSU caucus whip Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), who lost his re-election bid, said the TSU's unsatisfactory performance was a result of the results of vote-allocation strategies as well as President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) slogan "salvage the weak candidates."

"As a result, those high in the front list split their votes for the weaker candidates and ended up having themselves fall behind," Chen Chien-ming said.

With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) of the pan-blue camp retaining their grip on the new legislature, various issues, including the one concerning the KMT's ill-gotten party assets, are unlikely to be tackled in the immediate future, Chin said.

Tsai expressed his worry that the opposition-controlled legislature will continue to make Chen a lame duck and boycott policies proposed by the government.

Noting that Chen had stated that he wanted to form a Constitutional Reform Committee and a Committee for Cross-Strait Peace and Development (兩岸和平發展委員會) after the elections, Tsai said that he hopes the opposition will participate with the DPP administration for the good of the nation's long-term development.
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