Sixty-three percent of the votes cast by Tainan residents in the four referendums on Saturday were “no” votes — the highest rate of any county or municipality.
Prior to the vote, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had urged people to vote “no” on all four referendum questions, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) urged people to vote “yes” on all four.
On Saturday, 41.08 percent of Tainan residents voted, according to data compiled by the Tainan City Election Commission, and they cast about 160,000 to 180,000 more “no” votes than “yes” votes on each referendum question.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
In Tainan, 415,776 people voted “no” (64.13 percent) on the first referendum question — “Do you agree that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be activated for commercial operations?” — while 232,541 voted “yes” (35.87 percent).
On the second referendum question — “Do you agree to a total ban on the importation of pork and related products containing the beta agonist ractopamine?” — 406,976 people in Tainan voted “no” (62.79 percent) and 241,186 voted “yes” (37.21 percent).
On the third referendum question — “Do you agree that referendums should be held alongside general elections if a referendum proposal is confirmed less than six months before a general election?” — 405,395 people in Tainan voted “no” (62.53 percent) and 243,004 voted “yes” (37.47 percent).
On the final referendum question — “Do you agree that Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas terminal should be relocated from its planned site on the algal reef coast of Datan, Taoyuan, and its adjacent waters?” — 409,890 in Tainan voted “no” (63.27 percent) and 237,964 voted “yes” (36.73 percent).
Among Tainan’s districts, Jiangjyun (將軍), Madou (麻豆), Cigu (七股), Sigang (西港), Guantian (官田) and Syuejia (學甲) had an average of 70 percent “no” votes.
“The strongest support for the DPP has traditionally come from those six districts,” DPP Tainan chapter chairman Pan Hsin-chuan (潘新傳) said.
Madou, Sigang and Cigu had the highest number of votes nationwide for the DPP in the 2016 presidential election, he added.
The robust DPP support in those districts is in part because the party’s first president, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), grew up in Madou, Pan added.
Annan District (安南) also has a strong DPP support base, and 66.89 percent of the district’s voters cast “no” votes on the pork imports referendum, he said.
“No” votes outnumbered “yes” votes on all four referendum questions in Tainan and Kaohsiung, and Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung and Yilan counties.
“Yes” votes outnumbered “no” votes on all four referendum questions in Taipei, Taoyuan, and Keelung, and Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou, Hualien, Taitung, Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.
On the nuclear power plant referendum, in New Taipei City, where the plant is located, the number of “no” votes was higher, but only slightly, with 51.97 percent of people voting “no,” and 48.03 percent “yes.” On the other three referendum, the number of “yes” votes outnumbered “no” votes in the city.
Additional reporting by Tsai Wen-chi and Chung Li-hua
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