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Elections 2006: Democracy in action as voters replace BMWs

An elderly Taipei resident in a wheelchair exercises his voting rights in yesterday's mayoral and city council elections. PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

On most days, the parking lot on Lane 283 just off Roosevelt Road in Da-an District, Taipei, isn't a symbol of grassroots democracy. Normally, the gravelly plot is little more than a place for moneyed locals to stash their BMWs.

Yesterday, however, wasn't just any day.

Da-an District authorities had transformed the car lot into a polling station -- Da-an District Polling Station No. 1181, to be exact.

"We've had a steady flow of voters ever since we opened this morning," the polling station chief told the Taipei Times, identifying herself only by her surname, Chu (祝).

"The number of voters increases right between 3pm and 4pm," a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

So steady was the flow of voters at Polling Station No. 1181 that more than 60 percent of registered voters in the area had cast their ballots by 3pm.

"There are 1,600 registered voters in the area. So far, 1,000 of them have voted," Chu said at 3:10pm, 50 minutes before polling stations nationwide closed.

At 3:58pm, "Mrs. Lai" (賴太太), 81, was the last voter to emerge from the polling station.

"This is my duty as a citizen," the octogenarian said, referring to voting.

Lai, a vegetable farmer, added that she had traveled on foot from a nearby mountain just to cast her ballot.

"We had retirees in wheelchairs, stroke patients and other elderly locals come out specially to vote and make their voices heard," local borough warden Kao Luo Mei-hui (高羅美惠) said.

"These people really care," the warden added.

At 4pm sharp, a civilian task force and police officers roped off the "sorting area" and began counting ballots.

Random locals filed in to scrutinize the counting process behind the rope.

Wearing sweatpants with the word "fortuneteller" imprinted on its seat, a volunteer individually displayed the ballots while reading them aloud. Together, the audience and task force verified which ballots had been cast for which candidates.

The vast majority of the Taipei mayoral ballots were identified as being cast for the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

The audience cheered when a ballot for independent candidate Ko Tzu-hai (柯賜海) was called out.

The 50-year-old real estate investor's platform has focused on repossessing his cow, which was confiscated by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2004.

Ko raised the heifer in his Taipei home as a prop to put on display at protests in the city.

"Actually, Ko isn't really an animal lover," the police officer said, making sure to stay out of voters' earshot.

"He'd fill up his vans with stray dogs, pigs, chickens -- you name it. He was a real problem for us a while back," the officer added.

Also staying clear of voters' earshot, Chu called independent candidate Li Ao (李敖) a "freak."

"Yeah, Li's one of those nutty professor types," the officer chimed in.

"Didn't Li win the Nobel Prize at some point?" the officer asked.

"Nope," Chu replied.
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