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Voting opens in Taiwan presidential election centered on China ties
TAIPEI – Taiwanese voters started casting ballots Saturday to pick their next president in an election that will determine relations with mainland China and the direction of the island's export-driven economy over the next four years.
President Tsai Ing-wen of the Beijing-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party is favored to win reelection. She faces Han Kuo-yu, mayor of the southern city of Kaohsiung and nominee of the China-friendly Kuomintang, as well as James Soong, the chairman of the People's First Party making his fifth bid for the presidency.
The island's legislature is also up for grabs. Tsai's DPP holds 68 of the 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan, while the Kuomintang has 35. Smaller parties have eight seats, and independents hold the remaining two.
The Taiwan People's Party, formed by Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je in August, and other so-called third force parties may prevent either of the two major parties from claiming a majority.
Voting ends at 4 p.m. local time, and the outcome of the presidential race will be known a few hours later. There will be no exit polls. Results for the legislative election will come in as each district is called, with about 30% of the seats being decided by proportional representation based on party lists.
Tsai, 63, and her ruling DPP reject China's intended "one country, two systems" framework for Taiwan, citing the unrest in Hong Kong as evidence that Beijing poses a threat to the island's democratic values.
Han, 62, and his party back the 1992 Consensus, which acknowledges Taiwan and the mainland as parts of "one China" but lets each side freely interpret what that means. Soong, 77, says maintaining the status quo is the best approach until China is "fully democratized." Tsai's reelection bid may be helped by the prolonged trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have benefited the island's economy. Gross domestic product grew 2.91% in the July-September quarter, outperforming regional peers such as South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
But the president has been criticized by opponents for losing seven diplomatic allies to Beijing since taking office. Taiwan now is formally recognized by 15 nations and jurisdictions.
She also has come under fire for pushing to cut generous pension benefits for public sector workers such as teachers and soldiers, and for seeking to make the island nuclear-free by 2025 without spelling out how air pollution will be mitigated. In addition, conservatives are angry at her over the legalization of same-sex marriage.
"President Tsai still has the upper hand to win, but the gap should not be as big as some predicted previously," said Chen Kuang-hui, a professor at National Chung Cheng University. "The DPP's strategy to promote nationalism against China's dictatorship and linking Hong Kong's situation with Taiwan has been effective in the presidential campaign."
The DPP's nationalism campaign appears to have appealed more to younger voters, while middle-aged people and seniors who experienced Taiwan's economic rise two or three decades ago are uninterested, Chen said.
"A big portion of support for Han is coming from reminiscence of the good old days of Taiwan's strong economic growth," the professor said. But Han, in turn, appears to have "failed to attract and convince the younger generation to vote for him."
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Taiwan-elections/Voting-opens-in-Taiwan-presidential-election-centered-on-China-ties
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