Voter turnout for Saturday’s presidential election was the lowest of the six direct presidential elections since 1996, data compiled by the Central Election Commission showed.
Voter turnout in the election was 66.27 percent, compared with 76.04 percent in 1996, 82.7 percent in 2000, 80.28 percent in 2004, 76.33 percent in 2008 and 74.38 percent in 2012, the commission said.
The figures were released alongside the commission’s announcement late on Saturday that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had won the election.
Photo: CNA
Tsai and her running mate, Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), received 6.89 million votes, or 56.12 percent of total valid votes, commission Chairman Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) said.
Tsai defeated Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), who garnered 31.04 percent of the total vote, and People First Party (PFP) candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜), who received 12.84 percent of the vote.
In the legislative race, the DPP won 68 seats out of 113, up from 40 in the previous election four years ago, to give it an absolute majority in the legislature for the first time.
The KMT won 35 seats, sharply down from 64 in the previous election, the commission said.
The New Power Party (NPP) won five seats to become the third-largest party in the Legislative Yuan, followed by the PFP with three seats, the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union with one seat and an independent with the final seat.
The commission said voter turnout in single-member legislative constituency races was 66.58 percent, and 66.25 percent for the political party vote that determined the distribution of legislators-at-large.
Turnout was 57.66 percent for the vote for Aboriginal representatives in mountainous areas and 51.72 percent for the vote for Aboriginal representatives in low-lying areas.
Meanwhile, the commission said that five political parties that have each garnered more than 3.5 percent of the total number of votes cast in legislative elections are eligible to collect NT$50 per vote annually over the next four years, in accordance with the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
The New Party, which garnered 4.18 percent of the vote, would also receive subsidies, although it will not hold any legislator-at-large seats.
A record 18 political parties competed in the legislative election and four of them — the DPP, KMT, PFP and NPP — received more than 5 percent of the total votes, making them eligible to be allocated legislator-at-large seats and to receive the election subsidy, commission statistics showed.
It is calculated that the DPP would receive NT$268.54 million (US$7.94 million) each year, given that it garnered more than 5.37 million votes in the legislative election, while the KMT can claim NT$164.04 million and the PFP NT$39.74 million.
The NPP would be eligible to receive NT$37.21 million per year and the New Party NT$25.5 million.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS