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Campaign for year-end elections officially begins
Source: The China Post
Campaigning for next month's key parliamentary and local elections officially kicked off Wednesday.
The Central Election Commission officially posted in a public bulletin the name list Tuesday of candidates for legislators for the December 1 elections.
A total of 584 candidates will vie for the 225 seats in the Legislative Yuan. They include 434 candidates for directly elected legislative seats, 21 candidates for Aboriginal seats, 108 candidates for at-large seats and 21 candidates for seats chosen from overseas Taiwanese communities around the world.
Among the 434 candidates for directly elected legislative seats, 168 legislative seats will be elected and eight Aboriginal seats will be elected from 21 candidates.
Meanwhile, the county and city election commissions around the island also officially posted the name list of candidates for magistrates and mayors for the December 1 elections.
A total of 89 candidates will vie for 21 county magistrate and mayor slots in Taiwan Province, and for the county magistrate positions in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties of Fukien Province.
The 10-day campaign will intensify the battle to dominate the Legislature between the "pan-green alliance" and "pan-blue alliance," analysts said.
Green is the color of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whose pro-independence sentiment is shared by the fledgling Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), led by former President Lee Teng-hui.
Blue is the color of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which is joining ranks with two of its splinter groups, the People First Party (PFP) and New Party, to form an opposition majority in parliament.
The KMT now holds a slim majority of 50.5 percent, or 110 of 218 total seats, the PFP 20 seats and New Party eight. Eight lawmakers have switched to government posts, quit parliament or have been jailed since last poll.
The pan-greens are seeking to gain a majority to consolidate the power of President Chen Shui-bian, elected in May 2000 after five decades of KMT rule.
The DPP now holds only 65 seats, or 30 percent, while the newly formed TSU has no presence in the Legislature.
The December elections are also viewed as a litmus test of the 2004 presidential race among leading hopefuls.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Provincial Election Commission issued a local county and city council elections gazette.
According to the gazette, 871 county and city councilors representing Taiwan's 21 counties and cities will be elected January 26, 2002.
The gazette also said that the local township-level elections, which will elect Taiwan's 309 township chiefs will also be held on the same date.
The registration period for the elections is set between December 13 and December 17. The campaigning period will be from January 16 through January 25, according to the gazette.
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