Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday rejected claims of large-scale voter fraud in Saturday’s presidential election, saying it was unlikely in Taiwan’s mature democracy.
Following Ko’s third-place finish in the presidential election, some of his supporters have suggested that voter fraud was to blame for the discrepancy between the party’s polling and the official results.
The party’s internal polling was inaccurate not because the numbers were faked, as some have suggested, but because it was heavily weighted toward younger Taiwanese, Ko told reporters, adding that the result would have been closer if voter turnout was higher than 71 percent.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The campaign was unsuccessful at reaching older voters and encouraging people to vote, he said.
Although some minor voting anomalies in the election were possible, large-scale fraud is unlikely in a mature democracy like Taiwan’s, he said.
Ko on Tuesday evening wrote on Facebook that many of his supporters had contacted TPP headquarters or made accusations of voter fraud on social media, with some claiming to have seen hundreds of stolen votes, discrepancies in the count and other anomalies.
Although the Central Election Commission (CEC) said no fraud occurred in the elections, “so many mistakes of varying sizes have invariably raised questions among the public,” he wrote, calling for a better approach.
He also detailed the party’s internal polling methodology to dispel accusations that they had been faked to insinuate the race was closer than it was.
In related news, the CEC yesterday said it notified the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Justice Bureau of Investigation of the spread of online disinformation targeting it.
Despite the conclusion of the presidential election, people continue to spread false allegations on online against the commission and its staff, it said in a news release.
Members of political parties, or monitors recommended by the parties, were at voting booths, while the ballot count was televised, it said.
Even if some individuals failed to observe regulations, they were isolated cases, and, despite claims, ballot-rigging is impossible, the commission said.
False accusations stating that the CEC falsified vote counts or other similar messages and videos have been collected as evidence and forwarded to the judiciary for investigation, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS