Cold day
It's 7:30am, central time, USA here. I am watching the result 0f 2008 Legislative election posted on Liberty Times over the internet, and counting the seats DPP got. Although it's not finalized yet, but looks like most of the ballots are counted, and the differences of ballots between leading candidates don't seem to be close enough for any trouble.
And my heart turned colder and colder each time I clicked to a new page--- where are DPP's seats ? I can't find them.
In the end, I collected only 13 ... in the entire central and northern part of Taiwan, DPP got only 3. They even lost big in the southern part.
And don't mention about the referendum. Both subjects got pathetically low voting rates --- 26% something ...
For the referendum of "Asking KMT to return illegally obtained properties", its rejection by people means in the next 3 years Taiwanese are not allowed to ask KMT again with another referendum.
Awaiting ahead for Taiwanese is again a sinolized society hijacked by never-fading local warlords --- which is what Taiwanese fought so hard to get rid of. Now they welcome it back with their own ballots.
Something very seriously wrong here, I think. The thing that puzzles me the most right at this moment is --- why could have DPP, which always predicted election result precisely, made such an out of the league projection --- "37~47 seats looking up to 50" --- when their real chance is only 13 ?
Did DPP pick up the trick that KMT has been using --- reporting false prediction as a tool of campaign ?
Anyway, it's all too late by now. The history has its way to taunt people. For Taiwanese, it means, you guys have been too lucky in the past decade. The democracy just can't come easily, and now you have to learned it the hard way.
And my heart turned colder and colder each time I clicked to a new page--- where are DPP's seats ? I can't find them.
In the end, I collected only 13 ... in the entire central and northern part of Taiwan, DPP got only 3. They even lost big in the southern part.
And don't mention about the referendum. Both subjects got pathetically low voting rates --- 26% something ...
For the referendum of "Asking KMT to return illegally obtained properties", its rejection by people means in the next 3 years Taiwanese are not allowed to ask KMT again with another referendum.
Awaiting ahead for Taiwanese is again a sinolized society hijacked by never-fading local warlords --- which is what Taiwanese fought so hard to get rid of. Now they welcome it back with their own ballots.
Something very seriously wrong here, I think. The thing that puzzles me the most right at this moment is --- why could have DPP, which always predicted election result precisely, made such an out of the league projection --- "37~47 seats looking up to 50" --- when their real chance is only 13 ?
Did DPP pick up the trick that KMT has been using --- reporting false prediction as a tool of campaign ?
Anyway, it's all too late by now. The history has its way to taunt people. For Taiwanese, it means, you guys have been too lucky in the past decade. The democracy just can't come easily, and now you have to learned it the hard way.
Labels: 2008 legislative election
posted Saturday, January 12, 2008 @ 9:36 PM by Taiwan Echo
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7 Comments:
今天好悶。。。
I think the new system is mostly to blame...compared to the 2004 legislative elections the DPP got a similar share of the total vote, however because of the different system, this equated to a greater (and fairer) proportion of seats.
Perhaps it was a mistake for the DPP to approve the new system?
Perhaps it was a mistake for the DPP to approve the new system?
I've said it already and I'll keep saying it. The DPP got greedy - it wanted the chance of a majority without having to form a coalition. It's that simple.
Raj, the "DPP got greedy" by "drawing lots" to decide districts which ended up benefiting the KMT? And who were they to "form a coalition" with? The now-redshirt-infested TSU?
Tim Maddog
It's not just that the KMT won, but the extent to which they defeated the DPP that I find disturbing. Right now I feel like after a decade of democracy the majority of Taiwan's people chose one-party-rule... (2/3 majority for KMT... 天阿.)
On the other hand... it can only becomr better from now on (...right?)
tim
Raj, the "DPP got greedy" by "drawing lots" to decide districts which ended up benefiting the KMT?
No, it got greedy by agreeing to a system where a party could win a majority of seats without a majority of votes. I.e. the votes cast nationally were much less relevant as to where they were cast.
If the DPP had not been having delusions of sole majorities, it would have insisted there be more at large seats and they'd be used to top up parties who whose district tallies lagged behind their national vote. In other countries such a system is used to ensure that parties who miss out on seats but get lots of votes nationally aren't left too far behind. In Taiwan it doesn't matter whether you got 1 seat nationally or 70 - you get the same number from the at-large list either way.
Or it would have pushed for a fully PR system. It had enough votes in the Assembly to stop the current system if it thought it was bad.
And who were they to "form a coalition" with?
That's up to them and the voters. If the DPP couldn't find coalition partners under a more equitable system, that's their problem. If they tried to avoid that with the current system in the hope they could win 51%+ of the seats with less than 50% of the vote, they have only themselves to blame.
As for the districts, not all were agreed by ballot. The CEC in conjunction with the KMT and DPP agreed on a lot of seats - it might have even been most. When the ballots were used to decide the rest, the Pan Greens won a fair number as did the Pan Blues. There is no way the ballot method of deciding on a number of areas could have twisted the districting so badly in one direction.
I rather think Taiwan's democracy has made another milestone forward rather than backward as you believe. Taiwanese people has now twice removed a ruling party from power. Each time they do so reminds the ruler who the boss really is - the people. Therefore the ruling party ignore people's will at their own peril.
Don't feel too bad either, because this does mean KMT can govern Taiwan forever, they are still subject to people's watchful examination every four years. If they go against people's will as DDP has done this time, they will lose the ruling party status once again - because Taiwan's democracy has steadily improved, and is becoming a reliable force in shaping the island's future.
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