Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/01/10
By: Hsu Chi-wei and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Jan. 10 (CNA) With only one week before the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections, several university student associations announced Sunday they will jointly launch a movement to encourage political participation by leasing buses to transport young students to return home to vote.

The Central Election Commission estimates that 18.8 million people in Taiwan will be eligible to vote in the coming elections and 1.29 million of them will be first-time voters — accounting for 6.8 percent of total voters.

Given that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won over his main opponent Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by a mere margin of 6 percentage points in the 2012 race, the 6.8 percent of first-time voters could certainly swing the results, said Chen Chia-ching (陳佳菁), the president of the National Yang-Ming University Student Association.

Therefore, several university student associations around Taiwan have decided to lease buses to transport students studying in other cities to return home to vote by offering them tickets at preferential prices.     [FULL  STORY]