“Deep-green,” but not the DPP’s candidate: Taipei’s Mayor wins another term

Taiwan’s municipal elections ended in a mostly blue (KMT) night, with the DPP apparently winning only in six cities or counties, and losing their stronghold in Kaohsiung to the KMT.

And the DPP people may still consider themselves lucky. After all, they had done their best to hand Taipei over to a KMT government, too, by nominating a DPP candidate instead of supporting independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as they had done four years earlier. Taipei’s election result has been extremely narrow. According to Wikipedia (as accessed today), Ke got 580,820 votes, compared with 577,566 for Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), his KMT competitor, and only 244,641 for the DPP contender.

Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) points out that Ting lost to Ko with a difference of only 3,254 votes, i. e. less than 3 per mill, and that in accordance with the law, a sequester of the ballots and a check of the vote-counts accuracy can be requested from a court. (根據台北市選舉委員會的資料，尋求連任的市長柯文哲獲得58萬820票，當選台北市長。丁守中輸柯文哲3254票，差距小於有效票數的千分之3，依法可向法院聲請查封及驗票。)^*)

CNA:

After a deadlock of ten hours, Ke Wen-je won with 580,820 votes (41.05%) over Ding Shouzhong’s 577,566 votes (40.82%), with only 3,254 votes separating the two, which made this result the closest ever since the 1994 Taipei mayoral elections.

歷經逾10小時僵持，柯文哲以58萬0820票、41.05%得票率，擊敗丁守中的57萬7566票、40.82%，2人差距僅3254票，為1994年台北市長選舉以來，勝負雙方差距最小一次。

Ke Wen-je arrived at Four-four South Village at 2:35 in the morning, accompanied by Hsieh Ho-hsien‘s song “Taiwan’s Future.”

柯文哲在凌晨2時35分抵達四四南村，在歌手謝和弦「台灣的未來」歌聲下慢慢走到舞台，沿途獲得支持者熱烈歡迎與歡呼，而他的妻子陳佩琪、柯爸柯承發、柯媽何瑞英也在台上陪伴。

Not just Taipei’s, apparently. If the DPP would endorse him (on a national level) is a different question. Ko is still an independent, and – according to a Taiwan-based blog – about as gaffe-prone as Pasuya Yao. But either way, Pasuya Yao, not Ko, was the DPP’s candidate for the Taipei mayoral elections.

Ko’s relationship with the DPP has been somewhat uneasy recently, although “being deep-green is” his background.

____________

Note

^*) According to Radio Taiwan International‘s (RTI) English service, Ting Shou-chung, the KMT candidate, is contesting the election results.

____________

Related

Tsai steps down as DPP chair, RTI, Nov 24, 2018

____________

Abe’s Visit to Darwin: Kneeling PM, Crouching PM

^{ABC coverage, Nov 16, 2018}

Guanchazhe online (Observer), a news website from Shanghai, publishes a report, referring to Reuters newsagency coverage, writing that Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe and Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison held a ceremony at Darwin Cenotaph on Friday, commemorating the dead from Japan’s air raids on Darwin during WW2, 76 years ago. The article also mentions discussions concerning strengthened trade and defense cooperation between the two leaders.

The article refers to a liquid natural gas (lng) investment project in Darwin, with a planned Japanese investment of 54 billion Australian dollars (about 274.7 billion RMB), with INPEX Holdings Inc. as the main shareholder and operator, as one of the cooperation projects.

Without comment, Guanchazhe also quotes Morrison as saying^*) that

Australia and Japan remain consistent about the importance of sholving the South China Sea dispute. Both Japan and Australia strongly oppose any behavior that could intensify the tense situation in the region.

莫里森还表示，他期待与日本加强合作，维护地区的海上安全。两国领导人在会晤后表示，他们希望明年年初就加强两国防务合作达成协议，包括举行更多的联合军事演习。

Both Guanchazhe and Haiwainet (the latter is the online portal of People’s Daily‘s overseas edition) feature a photo showing the two prime ministers laying wreaths at the cenotaph, but Haiwainet points out the obvious in writing: “The Australian prime minister kneels, Abe crouches.”

ABC (video at the beginning) discusses Japan’s and Australia’s motivation to strengthen military cooperation.

According to reports earlier this year, an Australian dockyard, ASC Pty Ltd, is reportedly set to build nine Hunter class frigates from 2020 (designed in Britain), with the first of them to be operational by 2027. In a report this summer, ABC referred to the project as Australia’s largest peacetime warship building program.

____________

Note

^*) as quoted by AP newsagency: “Australia and Japan also stand united on the importance of resolving disputes in the South China Sea, peacefully and in accordance with international law, and we are strongly opposed to any actions that could increase tensions within the region.”

____________