A message intended for China-based Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安) that was pulled from a ballot box on Saturday prompted applause and cheering from people watching the poll count at Yilan County’s Sansing Township (三星).
Poll watchers burst into applause when an A4 piece of paper that had the sentence “Huang An eats shit” written on it in red ink was pulled out of a ballot box during vote counting.
Huang accused South Korea-based Taiwanese singer Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) of being a supporter of Taiwanese independence because she held a Republic of China flag on a South Korean variety show.
Just hours before Saturday’s elections, a video was released of Chou making an apology.
There was near unanimous sympathy and support for the 16-year-old, as it was speculated that her Korean bosses forced her to apologize, under pressure from Chinese fans.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) yesterday posted a photograph of the insulting message on his Facebook page, attracting about 10,000 “likes,” and it was “shared” more than 1,000 times.
A netizen said that “DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) could have lost the elections if ‘Huang An eats shit’ were a voting option.”
Polling staff said the note was destroyed, adding that casting things other than ballots into a ballot box can incur fines of NT$5,000 to NT$50,000, in accordance with the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
However, it would be difficult to identify the person who cast the paper, as it contained nothing identifiable, the staff said.
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