Election fallout: NCC says no TV stations inflated vote counts

The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday that they found no TV stations had inflated vote counts for any candidate or political party when reporting on Saturday's election.

Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the NCC's communication content department, said the commission closely monitored television news broadcasts on the election day and had found no anomalies.

In the past, some TV stations have "inflated ballots" when reporting vote counts, notably the 2004 presidential election, causing many disputes.

"As a regulator, we are glad that the television stations adhered to a strict code of conduct during the election this time around," Ho said.

He said television stations had taken into account statistics provided by both campaign headquarters and the Central Election Committee (CEC), which made the reports more accurate than before.

One television station reported that former Kinmen legislator Wu Cherng-dean (吳成典) had claimed victory based on the CEC's vote counts. The station quickly changed its statement and said independent challenger Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) had won. The commission considered the situation to be acceptable as Chen defeated Wu by a margin of only 900 votes and there may been a time lag between when reports were delivered.

Ten news stations signed a joint statement vowing to exercise self-restraint when reporting election results. They were Sanlih E-Television (SETV, 三立), Formosa TV (民視), Eastern TV (東森), ERA News (年代), Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV, 台視), TVBS, Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS, 台灣公共廣播集團), Unique Satellite TV (非凡), GALA Television (八大) and CTi (中天).

China Television Company (CTV, 中視) did not sign the statement.