The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) predicted yesterday that it would secure 60 seats in the Jan. 14 legislative elections to maintain its majority status in the 113-seat legislature. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), meanwhile, was optimistic about increasing its total number of seats to 50.
KMT officials said party mobilization has helped boost the KMT’s legislative campaigns in northern, central and southern regions.
Over the past two weeks, the party has successfully widened its lead in areas where the races had been neck and neck, the officials said.
Photo: CNA
However, DPP officials said the party is expected to maintain the upper hand in southern Taiwan. In northern Taiwan, the DPP aims to increase its seats in New Taipei City (新北市) from the current two to six, and hopes to win one to three seats in Taipei, where it currently has none, the officials said.
Also, the DPP stands a good chance of gaining more than 50 percent of the seats up for grabs in Greater Taichung and will work to win the only seat in Yilan County, they said.
A total of 73 seats in the regional constituencies and six among the country’s Aboriginal population will be contested in the Jan. 14 elections.
There will also be 34 at-large seats and seats representing overseas Taiwanese, which will be determined in proportion to the number of ballots garnered by the political parties. A political party must win at least 5 percent of the votes to be eligible for a share of the at-large seats.
Besides the KMT and DPP, nine other parties, including the People First Party (PFP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the New Party, are also competing for seats in the elections.
Lai Yueh-tchienn (賴岳謙), a spokesman for the PFP, expressed confidence yesterday that the party’s vote share would exceed 10 percent and that it would gain more than 10 regional and at-large seats.
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said his party, which won only 4 percent of votes in the previous election, hopes to double its share of the vote this time.
The TSU is also working to obtain more than 5 percent of the votes.
Lots were drawn yesterday to decide the numerical designations of the 11 parties that are running in the race, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.
They are the Taiwan National Congress (1), the People Largest Party (2), the DPP (3), the TSU (4), the KMT (5), the New Party (6), the National Health System Party (7), the Green Party (8), the PFP (9), Republic of China the Basic Laws of Taiwan Party (10) and the Taiwanism Party (11).
Promotional films from the -parties will be shown from Jan. 9 to Jan. 13, from 9pm to 10pm, on Taiwan Television, China Television Co, Chinese Television System, Formosa Television and Public Television Service, CEC officials said.
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