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Sunday, March 23, 2008

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Results of Taiwan's 2008 presidential election

Getting graphic

The Sunday Taipei Times has the election results online in graphic form, available as a PDF download.

There are also three articles on the two failed referendums:
* Referendums fail to meet thresholds

* ANALYSIS: Referendum failure could bring necessary reforms [plus a graphic containing translated ballots and pie charts]

* Torn ballots, some arrests reported as the nation votes
The short story is that because of the Chinese Nationalist Party''s (KMT) on-again, off-again boycott of both referendums, the threshold was not met for either one. Therefore, even though 94.01% of the ballots cast for the DPP said "yes" to their proposal to join the United Nations (UN) using the name "Taiwan," and more than 84% of those cast for the KMT-proposed/-boycotted referendum to "'rejoin' the international body using the name 'Republic of China' or any other 'practical' title that would uphold the country's dignity" also said "yes," both referendums failed. There's also the issue of the US government's "denunciation" of the referendums.

Much more info behind those links, including some partisan arrests for suspected vote buying which was nothing like the discussions in non-hushed tones that happened right in front of me yesterday.

The tautology of not throwing hissy fits
Another article gets the headline "Foreign observers laud peaceful poll." Duh! The simple reason it was peaceful is because DPP supporters don't riot when their candidates lose elections, unlike the KMT, which has done so many times before. Be sure not to miss Lien Chan's (連戰) low-class hissy fit described within that very article.

Ballots, not bullets: , , , , , , ,

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

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4 Comments:

At 9:57 AM, Blogger eugene said...

The margin was really surprising. The past two elections were almost 50-50, but this one was really unexpected. Especially in the southern counties and cities where DPP supposedly has a stronghold... what happened?! Seems like DPP has lost significant support in the south. That would be a real problem in future elections.

 
At 4:03 PM, Blogger Bobapower said...

Yeah i was very surprised that the south abandoned DPP. Especially Kaoshiung City, where they love him.

In the end, it all comes down to the economy. Although it had little to do with DPP (KMT should share as much blame), the president would always be the scapegoat.

A bad economy would doom any leader.

 
At 5:02 PM, Blogger Bobapower said...

The lower than expected voter turn-out also hurt the DPP.
I believe the blue supporters turned out.
I think many Taiwanese were unhappy with the economy and DPP and decided not to vote.
Maybe they didn't want to vote blue even thought they're not happy with green.

The youth numbers were also lower than previous elections.
Maybe people just weren't convinced or excited about the campaigns?

 
At 2:53 AM, Blogger channing said...

To retreat from oversimplifying, there were factors other than general dissatisfaction with DPP performance (call it pan-Blue brainwashing or what you will) that influenced the lack of election dispute and protests. The margin of victory was high and mathematically absolute. There were no violent or controversial incidents such as gun shootings and missile tests.

 

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