The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday reiterated that its presidential primary poll would be conducted in a fair and transparent manner, after KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) expressed concern that the poll could be rigged.
Due partly to the way the poll is designed, the primary candidates’ campaign teams are worried that they could be “gotten rid of,” Wang said in a statement yesterday.
The former legislative speaker last month withdrew from the party’s primary, but said that his plan to run for president remains unchanged.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
According to the rules set down by the KMT, the poll would target selected individuals in a household and those who cannot be reached would be replaced with newly selected ones, he said.
The method, possibly unfamiliar to many respondents, coupled with the fact that the poll would take seven days, have heightened the fear that the poll could be rigged, Wang said.
With the margin between the first and second places likely to be 3 to 5 percentage points, the Democratic Progressive Party could manipulate the poll and help the “easier-to-beat” candidate win, he said.
The KMT should clear any doubts about the polling method and prepare strategies to counter possible manipulation by other political parties, he said.
Four years ago, the party nominated Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as its presidential candidate only to replace her later, Wang said, adding that it must be careful this time.
In response, KMT poll panel convener Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said: “Everything will be conducted based on the principles of fairness and transparency.”
Poll respondents would be randomly selected from a pool of 6,446,977 landline telephone numbers in the Chunghwa Telecom database on Saturday in the presence of the candidates’ representatives, Huang said.
A total of 400,000 numbers would be selected and allotted to five polling companies, he said, adding that companies would run a three-hour computer check to ensure that the same number does not come up twice.
Each company would have a pool of 80,000 numbers to ensure that they can collect 3,000 valid samples, Huang said.
For each number, a computer would randomly select two people to be polled, Huang added.
If the first person cannot be reached, the interviewer would ask to speak with the second selected person in the household, he said.
If the second person is also unavailable, they would call later in the day to try to reach the first one, he added.
If the first one is still unavailable, they would then give up the sample and call another number, Huang said.
To ensure fairness, the order in which candidates appear in questions would also be randomly determined by a computer, he said.
Poll samples collected from Monday to July 14 would be weighted and averaged, then announced on July 15, he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS