Taiwanese candidates raise the stakes ahead of local elections

Name: How vegetables tie in with winning elections in Taiwan
Uploaded: 2022-11-26T03:00:20.000Z
Duration: 1 min 40 s
Description: How vegetables tie in with winning elections in Taiwan

Polls opened on Saturday morning in elections some politicians have framed as crucial to maintaining self-ruled island’s democracy

Constitutional amendments on the ballot could lower voter, candidate age to 18

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Polls opened Saturday morning in local elections some politicians have framed as key to maintaining Taiwan’s democracy. Photo: AP

Lawrence Chungin Taipei

Published: 11:00am, 26 Nov 2022Updated: 4:04pm, 26 Nov 2022

Taiwanese voters went to the polls on Saturday to elect thousands of local leaders in a vote the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has repeatedly said will help save the hard-fought democracy of Taiwan from being destroyed by Beijing.

The local elections – known as the 9-in-1 polls for the nine elections held on the same day – are being closely watched by Beijing as the public decides for the first time whether to amend the island’s constitution to grant 18-year-olds the right to vote and to run for office. Now, people must be at least 20 to vote and 23 to run for elected office.

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How vegetables tie in with winning elections in Taiwan

More than 19 million voters are eligible to cast ballots at over 17,000 polling stations across the self-ruled island to choose 11,023 public officials, including the mayors of the six special municipalities of Taipei, New Taipei City, and Taoyuan in the north, Taichung in central Taiwan, and Tainan and Kaohsiung in the south.

The positions of 16 county and city heads are also on the ballots, as well as councillors and officials with various grass-roots organisations, including townships, villages and boroughs.

Polling stations opened at 8am and will stay open until 4pm. Early returns are expected by 7pm, according to the Central Election Commission.

After casting their ballots, the heads of the island’s political parties, including Tsai of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, Eric Chu Li-luan of the main opposition Kuomintang, and Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party urged all eligible people to vote.

Election officials have been watching the weather, which has been rainy the past few days and could affect voter turnout.