More than 80 percent of students who took part in online mock elections ahead of the Jan. 11 polls voted for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as the next president, the National Students’ Union of Taiwan said yesterday.
The mock elections were jointly organized by groups including the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy and the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, as well as 35 university student unions, the union said.
Voting took place on Facebook from 8:20pm on Thursday last week to 8:20pm on Sunday, the groups said, adding that holders of student identification cards from senior high schools, vocational high schools and universities in Taiwan were allowed to vote for one presidential candidate and one political party.
Photo: CNA
A total of 11,369 valid votes were cast in the mock elections, union president Tan Ko-him (陳佑維) said, adding that invalid votes, such as those cast by non-students, were not counted.
University students accounted for 8,594 votes, while senior-high and vocational-high students accounted for 2,775, he said.
Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won the mock presidential election with 85.5 percent of the vote, he added.
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) finished second with 9.8 percent and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, garnered 4.7 percent of the vote for third place, Tan said.
Four political parties — the New Power Party (NPP), the DPP, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — secured at least 5 percent of the party vote, he said.
The NPP received 26.86 percent of the party votes, followed by the DPP at 25.78 percent, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party at 24.21 percent and the TPP at 11.87 percent, he said.
Legislator-at-large seats are to be divided among the parties that pass the threshold in the Jan. 11 legislative election.
With 454 votes, the Green Party Taiwan crossed the 3 percent threshold that would be required for a party to qualify for government subsidies, Tan said.
The KMT fell short of the 3 percent threshold with 341 votes, but reached the 2 percent threshold that would allow it to nominate legislator-at-large candidates in the next three legislative elections, the results showed.
The PFP received 1.81 percent of the votes, while the other 12 parties that were also included in the mock election each garnered less than 1 percent of the votes, Tan said.
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
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
RSS