After the election, scattered vote buying prosecutions are the norm... Kaohsiung prosecutors go after the newly elected KMT legislators down there. Of the 9 spots in Kaohsiung, the DPP took seven. The China Post scribes:In the Kaohsiung case, the defendants' relatives, friends and aides have been found to have allegedly offered cash to voters in return for their ballots, the prosecution noted.The article notes that prosecutors in Taichung are going after aides of May Chin, the aboriginal legislator, for vote buying, though they claim she had no knowledge of it.
The prosecution argues that Chien and Tung must have pulled strings behind the alleged vote-buying acts, or turned a blind eye to what they knew was going on, according to the Central News Agency.
These prosecutions provide evidence for the assertions of widespread vote buying that helped propel the KMT to victory in the 2012 elections.
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5 comments:
Come on Michael - when the green camp loses its always "vote buying" or "influence by china" ...etc. These are just excuses. Its time for green supporters to consider maybe that times have moved on, and so have the minds of the Taiwanese electorate. Yeah the struggles for democracy and human rights and all that were great but what matters more nowadays are jobs and economic opportunities. Whether you like it or not the rise of China as a economic and political powerhouse means we need to handle our relationship with the mainland in a realistic manner. Most people are starting to realize that now. It's not just some "grand narrative", its economic reality. This ain't the 1980s anymore. Times have moved on. The world have moved on.
政治口號意識形態的時代已經過去了。。。 泛綠陣營如果不能與時俱進拿出一套新的論述那就只能當永遠的反對黨。。
It's not just some "grand narrative", its economic reality.
You must be right, especially given the mountain of evidence you've offered to support your position.
You're right Michael - I don't have hard data or evidence. Its just gut feeling of someone who used to feel passionate about the causes of the Green camp. All I have to offer is my own observations and those around me. But as a voter thats what I base my decision on. Yeah when I was in college what the DPP stood for really represents change and hope for something better. But in the past few years when I hear green politicians speak its just same tired old thing - it doesn't excite me anymore.
光是愛台灣已經不夠了。拿不出一套具體的說法和做法的話。。。我想民進黨很難贏。。
No one has any hard data. It's one of the most frustrating things about thinking about election outcomes. The pre-election polling is awful; the post election analysis never contains numbers. The DPP internals had Tsai up by 1% going into the final week (they had Soong at 3%). I wonder how much her mention of a coalition government cost her. Like you, I go with my gut, and that one made me feel ill.
But of all the analyses about rational voting, I like Fahey's the best.
There's no way to know why the Taiwanese voted the way they did, until we get better pre and post election sociological work. Even exit polls are useless, since the polling stations are so far from the exits.
Michael
Just thought I'd add: vote buying isn't anything new, I remember as a child some "uncle" would hand over a sum of money to the adults asking them to vote for a specific someone.
For this last election, my family members were again offered money.
I dislike the practice, although since people can and do keep the money without voting for the money-offering group,I wonder how it is different from handing out t-shirts, offering beverages, or disseminating obscure information as facts. That is, I wonder if it's any worse than the things that already happen and are deemed okay in the public eye.
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