The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday reiterated that its presidential primary poll would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, after KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) expressed concern that the poll could be rigged.
Due partly to the way the poll is designed, the primary candidates’ campaign teams are worried that they could be “gotten rid of,” Wang said in a statement yesterday.
The former legislative speaker last month withdrew from the party’s primary, but said that his plan to run for president remains unchanged.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
According to the rules set down by the KMT, the poll would target selected individuals in a household and those who cannot be reached would be replaced with newly selected ones, he said.
The method, possibly unfamiliar to many respondents, coupled with the fact that the poll would take seven days, have heightened the fear that the poll could be rigged, Wang said.
With the margin between the first and second places likely to be 3 to 5 percentage points, the Democratic Progressive Party could manipulate the poll and help the “easier-to-beat” candidate win, he said.
The KMT should clear any doubts about the polling method and prepare strategies to counter possible manipulation by other political parties, he said.
Four years ago, the party nominated Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as its presidential candidate only to replace her later, Wang said, adding that it must be careful this time.
In response, KMT poll panel convener Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said: “Everything will be conducted based on the principles of fairness and transparency.”
Poll respondents would be randomly selected from a pool of 6,446,977 landline telephone numbers in the Chunghwa Telecom database on Saturday in the presence of the candidates’ representatives, Huang said.
A total of 400,000 numbers would be selected and allotted to five polling companies, he said, adding that companies would run a three-hour computer check to ensure that the same number does not come up twice.
Each company would have a pool of 80,000 numbers to ensure that they can collect 3,000 valid samples, Huang said.
For each number, a computer would randomly select two people to be polled, Huang added.
If the first person cannot be reached, the interviewer would ask to speak with the second selected person in the household, he said.
If the second person is also unavailable, they would call later in the day to try to reach the first one, he added.
If the first one is still unavailable, they would then give up the sample and call another number, Huang said.
To ensure fairness, the order in which candidates appear in questions would also be randomly determined by a computer, he said.
Poll samples collected from Monday to July 14 would be weighted and averaged, then announced on July 15, he said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS