As political parties estimate how many legislative seats they might win in next Saturday’s polls, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has said it hopes to garner 60, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it aims to secure 50 in the 113-seat legislature.
The People First Party (PFP), whose chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) is in a three-way presidential race with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), said it hoped to win up to 13 seats, while the New Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) hoped they could garner three and two seats respectively.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it was very likely that neither the KMT nor the DPP would win more than half of the legislative seats, so the “power map” at the nation’s highest law-making body could change.
In 10 constituencies, pan-blue parties — the KMT, the PFP and the New Party — are locked in a battle for legislative seats. In all but one of the cases, the battle is between the KMT and the PFP, although all three pan-blue parties have nominated a contender in Kinmen.
In the pan-green camp, which includes the DPP and the TSU, the TSU has not nominated any candidates for the regional polls. It simply hopes to win more than 5 percent of the vote to earn two legislator-at-large seats.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) estimated that in the election for the nation’s 13th president and vice president, as well as the eighth Legislative Yuan, there would be 18,090,255 eligible voters, an increase of 768,633 from the 2008 elections.
The majority of the new voters are those who have turned 20 since the last election, while others are naturalized citizens, such as foreign spouses and new immigrants.
CEC officials said each voter will have three ballots: one for president and vice president, one for legislator and one for political party.
The presidential ballot is pink, while the political party ballot is white. The regional legislator ballot is yellow, but “plains Aborigines” will elect their legislators using light blue ballots and “mountain Aborigines” light green ones.
Polling stations will open at 8am and close at 4pm on Saturday. The CEC expects to finish the vote count by 10pm.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
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