Suspicion of vote rigging in this presidential election

[cfimages]

I am very suspicious regarding the fairness of this election, however, I doubt that the KMT could pull off something like 6% of the total votes.

Choosing the date to be January 14th definitely was not fair at all. So the rich kids living overseas can come back early for Chinese New Year and vote. This was most likely n Ma's favor.
I noticed all construction sites in Taipei were busy on election day. It right away came to my mind that this was one thing the KMT could have speculated on since many construction workers do not live near their workplaces.
Also the whole vote-buying scheme could have been fabricated this way.

However, I thought this would help the KMT if it was a very close call, not something like 5-6%.

Still need to watch out though.


I uploaded this video shortly before the first counts were on TV.

Construction workers etc would still have had to work if the election were held in March.

[sandman]

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[Hamletintaiwan]

I am very suspicious regarding the fairness of this election, however, I doubt that the KMT could pull off something like 6% of the total votes.

Choosing the date to be January 14th definitely was not fair at all. So the rich kids living overseas can come back early for Chinese New Year and vote. This was most likely n Ma's favor.
I noticed all construction sites in Taipei were busy on election day. It right away came to my mind that this was one thing the KMT could have speculated on since many construction workers do not live near their workplaces.
Also the whole vote-buying scheme could have been fabricated this way.

However, I thought this would help the KMT if it was a very close call, not something like 5-6%.

Still need to watch out though.


I uploaded this video shortly before the first counts were on TV.

Construction workers etc would still have had to work if the election were held in March.

Do you really want to deny the fact that the whole country is in a different mode before Chinese New Year?

Also, people don't talk about politics very much when they are in public places including their work but if they go home for the Chinese holidays, they do.
Choosing January 14th, a week before themost important holidays here in Taiwan, did interfere with their election process in many ways.

We for example got all our bills at once 6,000NT$ or so, there is a lot of extra work before th holidays and many workers, not only the construction workers, can't make it back to hometown.

Anyhow the green party complained about this date. So where was the problem changing it if it doesn't matter?

[Mucha Man]

Remember folks, there was going to be a January election no matter what: for the legislative assembly. In 2008 it was also in January. On Jan 12 to be precise.

CNY was Feb 7 that year though.

Doubtlessly the choice had some impact, and doubtlessly that was deliberate, but the results were not close enough to really make this an issue.

Why not focus on something real like the potential forging of government documents in the Yu Chang case? That this case is going to be forgotten about is a disgrace and yet one more reason I have lost faith in the Taiwanese. In any free country the suspicion of forgery by the ruling party would be still in the news and would under serious investigation. Here, not even the opposition seems to really care.

[ScottSommers]

There's no disagreement from me about the relative unfairness of the elections. Changing dates was ridiculous. Sure there was vote buying, although there's little evidence that vote buying has much effect on national-level elections here and is primary a problem in LY and local elections.

But I am not convinced there was outright cheating. Every election you hear this from someone. I am surprised to hear there are DPP political figures claiming this, but that may simply be the maturing of the DPP into a permanent political force and their transformation into a bunch of crybabies as bad as the KMT in 2004. I hope that's not the case.

[Dog's_Breakfast]

Choosing the date to be January 14th definitely was not fair at all. So the rich kids living overseas can come back early for Chinese New Year and vote. This was most likely n Ma's favor.

The "rich kids studying abroad" has got to be the weakest "unfair" argument I've heard yet. First of all, how would holding the election in March make it easier for less wealthy Taiwanese students abroad to get back here to vote? Are airplane tickets cheaper in March? How would having two separate elections (January for legislature, March for president) make it easier for poor Taiwanese students abroad to vote? Or are you arguing that holding the presidential election in March would be fairer because the rich kids wouldn't be on winter semester break at that time, so therefore they couldn't get back here to vote?

All this assumes of course that the rich kids only vote KMT. I'm not totally convinced of that either.

[Mawvellous]

Choosing the date to be January 14th definitely was not fair at all. So the rich kids living overseas can come back early for Chinese New Year and vote. This was most likely n Ma's favor.

The "rich kids studying abroad" has got to be the weakest "unfair" argument I've heard yet. First of all, how would holding the election in March make it easier for less wealthy Taiwanese students abroad to get back here to vote? Are airplane tickets cheaper in March? How would having two separate elections (January for legislature, March for president) make it easier for poor Taiwanese students abroad to vote? Or are you arguing that holding the presidential election in March would be fairer because the rich kids wouldn't be on winter semester break at that time, so therefore they couldn't get back here to vote?

All this assumes of course that the rich kids only vote KMT. I'm not totally convinced of that either.

I thought semester for the rich kids would have started by January 15th.
Even if a few more people than normal made it back to vote this time, the effect would have been very marginal.

[cyborg_ninja]

Choosing the date to be January 14th definitely was not fair at all. So the rich kids living overseas can come back early for Chinese New Year and vote. This was most likely n Ma's favor.

The "rich kids studying abroad" has got to be the weakest "unfair" argument I've heard yet. First of all, how would holding the election in March make it easier for less wealthy Taiwanese students abroad to get back here to vote? Are airplane tickets cheaper in March? How would having two separate elections (January for legislature, March for president) make it easier for poor Taiwanese students abroad to vote? Or are you arguing that holding the presidential election in March would be fairer because the rich kids wouldn't be on winter semester break at that time, so therefore they couldn't get back here to vote?

All this assumes of course that the rich kids only vote KMT. I'm not totally convinced of that either.

yes the tickets are a lot cheaper in march since election was right before chinese new year. Price difference from Jan to march is around 10,000NT flying with Qantas (also affected by students flying back to sydney when uni starts in 1st of march).

During the week of elections, LOADS of local university students could not have gone home (usually south) and vote due to upcoming papers and exams. lowest voter turn out rate (74%), a complete coincidence.

Besides, everybody knows the KMT buys votes like crazy, but they're in charge and have their buddies in the government so its all good.

[Mawvellous]

During the week of elections, LOADS of local university students could not have gone home (usually south) and vote due to upcoming papers and exams. lowest voter turn out rate (74%), a complete coincidence.

This is complete bullshit. Most students had finished their exams the day before, and in any case the turnout in Kaohsiung and Tainan was only 1-2 percent lower than Taipei. Even if turnout has been 10% higher across the south, and Tsai had won ALL of the extra votes, Ma still would have won the election.

[Dog's_Breakfast]

yes the tickets are a lot cheaper in march since election was right before chinese new year. Price difference from Jan to march is around 10,000NT flying with Qantas (also affected by students flying back to sydney when uni starts in 1st of march).

I was actually being facetious about the air fares. Holding two separate elections (Jan and March) would be a bigger problem for students wanting to return. To participate in both elections, the students would have to make two trips, purchasing two airplane tickets, which favors the "rich kids" even more. And if I'm not mistaken, the DPP wanted two separate elections in January and March.

But a bigger problem is that students have to be in class (especially during exam week), and the holiday schedule in Western countries doesn't conform to the Chinese Lunar New Year in Taiwan.

According to your post, uni in Australia starts March 1, which in 2012 happens to be a Thursday. But elections in Taiwan are always held on Saturday. No joy there for Taiwanese students in Australia (rich or not) wanting to attend a March election in Taiwan.

In the USA, winter break is typically mid-December to mid-January, but many schools only give two weeks. The spring break is usually just a long weekend, but that varies by school. I just looked it up for 2011-2012 - a couple of select universities known to have a large Taiwanese student population:

University of California, Davis
Winter Break: Dec 10-Jan 8
Spring Break: Mar 24-Mar 28 (5 days)

University of California, Los Angeles
Winter Break: Dec 10-Jan 8
Spring Break: Mar 24-Mar 27 (4 days)

In both of these very large universities, students could NOT have made it to the January 14 election in Taiwan without skipping classes or exams, no matter how rich they are. The 4-5 day spring break would have been impossible too, given that elections in Taiwan are always held on a Saturday, and March 24 is a Saturday, but given the international date line Saturday in America is already Sunday in Taiwan. To get back to Taiwan on time without missing exams, the students would need a Star Trek style transporter to make it on time.

So sorry, I'm not buying this "unfair because of overseas rich kids" argument. It's got more holes than Swiss cheese.