Saturday, March 22, 2008

Taiwan- Into Ma Ying-jeou's Era

Taiwan voters went to the polling stations today to vote in the 12th term President and Vice-President of The Republic of China.

Ma Ying -jeou and his running mate Vincent Siew of Kuomintang were in a straight fight with Frank Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The intense election scenario and the closeness of the fight kept me glued to the T.V. for the outcome after 5:00pm. The progressive release of the electoral results showed Ma leading all the way through, with victory claimed at 7:30pm by a majority of 2 million votes after a month-long explosive election campaign against DPP's Frank Hsieh.

The electoral results fell within our prediction, but the magnitude of the majority took me by some surprise.

This presidential election saw Taiwan blowing a strong wind of change. The eight-year control of the government of Taiwan by DPP's President Chen Shui-bian sent the economy of the island state to a state of devastation. Strong urge was prevalent to vote out the corrupted DPP-controlled administration.

The conclusion of the election ushers in a new Taiwan - an era of Ma Ying-jeou.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Personally the rejoicing is shortlived because Kuomintang is actually an old political party. In fact it is the party that led to the formation of China before communism took over. The DPP is a young party comparatively but is equally competitive as it has proved itself from its' 8 years' track record.

I had a feeling that President Ma would win. He spoke English which the DPP did not. He looks good which is an advantage to any leader. He wants to open his arms to his mainland brothers and sisters which shows that he is a man of tact and peace.