Supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gathered outside the party's campaign headquarters in Taipei yesterday afternoon and watched as vote tallies were displayed on television screens.
Some supporters broke down in tears when they saw the disappointing results.
A Taiwanese woman surnamed Lin, who lives in Japan, said she cried when she realized that the DPP was going to lose the election.
PHOTO: HSIEH FUNG-CHIU, TAIPEI TIMES
"I am really upset," she said. "People in Taiwan seem to only care about short-term interests and some are willing to sell themselves for that."
Lin said she was concerned about Taiwan's future, and especially the plight of the middle and working class.
CHINA THREAT
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"Once [the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] is in power, it will allow Chinese laborers to come and take all the jobs," she said.
Twenty-one-year-old Miss Huang and 28-year-old Miss Tsai, both volunteer DPP campaign workers, were in tears. Given the result of the 2004 election, they said they had not expected the margin of defeat to be so great.
Huang said that voters did not understand the serious consequences of a single party controlling both the presidential office and the legislature. She said she was concerned that the nation could return to something like the White Terror era.
Tsai said she did not want Taiwan to become a second Tibet.
Devin Huang (黃東漢), a college student from Taoyuan, said the DPP had fought bravely with limited resources against a strong rival.
He also said that a majority of the voters did not dislike the DPP, but were using the election as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with President Chen Shui-bian (
ECONOMY
Regarding his expectations for president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
He added that it was unfair that some overseas Taiwanese got to fly in to vote and leave the next day. Devin Huang said the electoral system should be overhauled.
A 65-year-old retired man surnamed Shih said he did not feel particularly sad about the result of the election, although he had only expected the KMT to win by a margin of between 3 and 5 percentage points.
"They [the KMT] surely have plenty of money to buy votes," he said.
Shih also said that neither of the presidential candidates could solve the China problem, adding that a resolution depended on China itself.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS