vote results
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(Carter oversees elections - comes in 4th)
03.19.00 <TAIPEI, TAIWAN> -- By the time Saturday evening rolled into the harbors of Taipei, Tiawan's presidential election had come to a close and it looked as if Taiwan had political party controlling the presidency. It seemed evident that Chen Shui-bain and his Democratic Progressive Party had finally broken a Nationalist Party's stranglehold on the presidency dating back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists first fled to the island from mainland China.
Looks were deceiving. A recount of vote totals early Sunday morning, as required by Taiwanese law, produced shocking results: unobtrusive candidate, Chiang Kai-cat, has stormed to the front of the pack and claimed victory.
Jimmy Carter, former U.S. president overseeing the elections told reporters that the result was probably not tainted. "That is why Taiwan has mandated that votes be counted twice. Because during the first tabulation counters are often thinking rationally and thinking rationally can dramatically and negatively affect vote counts. We find that when workers are asked to recount millions of votes at 4AM, they just aren't thinking straight -- and this insures sound results."
Carter, who was also one of the candidates vieing for the Taiwan presidency, did express some concern, though. "On the other hand. I think it's PRETTY fishy that I came in last in both vote counts. I know I voted for me. Right here in this room that makes 50% percent of us who voted for me. And that's just not reflected in the poles. I'm going to go eat some eggs, and if I feel good afterwards I'll call a recount of the votes. Maybe not. It just depends on... uhh.. a whim I suppose is the best word for it."
So what does it all mean? Most importantly it means that the Nationalists retain the presidency. Chiang Kai-cat is a 5th generation descendent of Chiang Kai-shek's pet cat, "Eddie". Experts this morning are explaining the sudden surge in Chiang Kai-cat's popularity a result of a recent name change. Only three weeks agao Chiang Kai-cat was going by his original birthname, "Socks" or by his nickname, "Cat".
"It took voters a couple of weeks to realize that 'Socks' and 'Chiang Kai-cat' were one in the same," says Taiwan expert Bob Higgins of Deleware State's Political Science department. "There have been lots of cats running in this election and voters initially may have been confused about the name change. Chiang Kai-cat had a sizeable following before the name change and it took them awhile to figure out where the hell their candidate had gone to. Its not unusual for some candidates to be let out early in the morning and not come home for days. Many voters probably thought their candidate had gotten hit by a car or wandered up a tree, and when they realized that their candidate was still going to be there for them, just with a different name, well obviously the voters figured this out and came out in record numbers."
"Yes, it couldn't have hurt Chian Kai-cat to align itself with a former reverred leader. But I think that was only a small part of the story. When Chen Shui-bian came out with his new "DOG MAN" version of Progressive party logo four weeks ago his support base began to dwindle. The plan backfired. Cat people are a HUGE voting blocking across Taiwan and you just don't come out with that kind of anti-cat message. When the approach was obviously failing for Shui-bain, Lien Chen for some reason began his "NO CATS" campaign. I still can't figure that move out. Regardless, voters were driven to the cat candidates.
"Its hard to say how this election will affect the China-Taiwan relations. With the Nationalists continuing to hold power, most of us expect a status quo to pervade. Yes, the new president's breed is a Turkish variety, but most Taiwanese consider turkey a delicacy, so that is, essentially, a non-issue. I think the bigger question on everyone's mind is 'Is Chiang Kai-shek a boy or a girl?' Neither of Kai-cat's former names,'Socks' or 'Cat', really give us a clue. Initial reports have been, from what I can tell, very poor. Throughout the early morning local Taiwanese television stations have been reporting contradictory stories: "President is girl!" and "President is boy!". The zoom lens shots we have of "IT" just aren't clear enough. We'll just have to wait for someone to pick the new president up and give "IT" a good hard look.
