The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must be prepared for election day hijinks courtesy of China, writes Courtney Donovan Smith.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/05
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)
Credit: Reuters / Tyrone Siu
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the votes, and how.” — Joseph Stalin
A friend who is passionate about the workings of Taiwanese democracy recently pointed out privately that with the upcoming concurrent elections and referendums, the Central Election Commission (CEC) was desperately short of people to handle and monitor the voting.
Her comments were alarming on several fronts. Short staffing could cause breakdowns during any (or all) of the voting processes, calling the results into question. Anything – preparing for the voting, handling voters at the booth, processing the results – could potentially fall apart. For example, if there aren’t enough people to handle and process the voters at a polling station, lines could grow, people may roam about unmonitored and some might not even get a chance to vote by the time polls close. Or what if there is a breakdown in processing and tabulating the results?
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was all smiles when she fell at a Taipei mayoral rally for DPP candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智), but a breakdown in election monitoring on Nov. 24 would be no laughing matter. [FULL STORY]