The Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance yesterday said it would not encourage voters to engage in “ballot allocation,” backing away from previous statements.
“We will not actively call for ballot allocation. While we do not have, and will not, recommend a presidential candidate, we will push as hard as we can to rally support for our district candidates and urge voters to support us on the legislators-at-large ballot,” Green Party co-chairman Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said.
Under ballot allocation, voters are encouraged to strategically distribute their votes to maximize the election of candidates from a similar ideological background.
While traditionally used in multi-seat districts, the strategy was also employed by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to increase its votes on the legislator-at-large party ballot in the last election, with the party issuing a call for all pan-green voters to allocate at least one legislator-at-large party ballot to the party.
Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chairwoman Fan Yun (范雲) earlier this week used language closely mirroring the TSU’s to call for both pan-green and pan-blue voters to allocate at least one vote to the party.
Her party formed an electoral alliance with the Green Party last year to pool their legislator-at-large votes, increasing the chances that the Alliance slate would cross the 5 percent threshold required to win legislator-at-large seats.
SDP secretary-general Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) yesterday said Fan’s remarks should be interpreted as a general call for votes.
“Vote allocation assumes that you have targeted certain people who are willing to listen to your instructions,” she said. “Our plea is that everyone support a small party which cares for the environment and disadvantaged people.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Wednesday called on supporters to vote only for the DPP on their legislator-at-large ballots, with party officials claiming that informal “ballot allocation” was threatening to cut into the party’s “safe” list of legislator-at-large seats.
Both the Alliance and the similar “third force” New Power Party have competed for pan-green support, actively seeking DPP endorsement for district candidates and appearing in events with DPP officials.
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