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Taiwan to elect new president, Legislature Saturday

ROC Central News Agency

2016/01/15 14:43:54

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Taiwanese voters will go to the polls Saturday to elect a new president and a new Legislature, and the results are expected later in the day.

There are just over 18.78 million eligible voters in the country's 22 cities and counties, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

It said 15,582 polling stations across the country will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and preliminary results will become available within hours of the polls closing.

The eyes of the world have been focused on Taiwan to see who will emerge as its new president, particularly as many countries are interested in the future development of relations across the Taiwan Strait.

Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the ruling Kuomintang, and James Soong (宋楚瑜) of the minority People First Party are competing in the presidential race.

Of the eligible voters in the presidential election, 12.93 million, or 68.8 percent, are registered in the country's six special municipalities, namely Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.

New Taipei has the highest number of eligible voters (3.2 million), followed by Kaohsiung (2.25 million), Taipei (2.18 million) Taichung (2.14 million), Taoyuan (1.63 million) and Tainan (1.53 million), CEC statistics showed.

In terms of age groups, the CEC said, 3.92 million registered voters are in the 30-39 bracket, 3.61 million in the 40-49 group and about 3.2 million in the 20-29 category.

Meanwhile, 18.31 million people are eligible to vote in the regional legislative election, and 18.79 million in the at-large legislative poll, the CEC said.

When the last elections were held in 2012, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won re-election by receiving 51.60 percent of the votes, compared with 45.63 percent won by Tsai. The turnout was 74.38 percent.

Ma's KMT won 64 seats in the Legislature, compared with the DPP's 40 seats.

This year, a total of 556 hopefuls from 18 different political parties are seeking to fill the 113 seats in the Legislature, the CEC said. Thirty-four of those are at-large seats determined by votes cast for the individual political parties.

The new president will take over from Ma, who will step down on May 20 after serving two four-year terms, while elected legislators will be sworn in next month.

(By Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/pc