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.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book