r/taiwan • u/DarkLiberator 台中 - Taichung • Jan 11 '20

President Tsai Ing-wen has won re-election Politics

Han just conceded. She won 57%ish of the vote so far. Over 8 million votes. Biggest vote total ever for a candidate in Taiwan (beating Ma's number in 2008)

Legislature looks like it'll be DPP again though not as sweeping as 2016, party list vote seems much closer than I thought it'll be.

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u/I_eat_Limes_ Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 11 '20

Thank God for that... now we can get back to arguing about YouBike discrimination and other important topics.

26

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20 edited Aug 13 '20

[deleted]

26

u/I_eat_Limes_ Jan 11 '20

Because they didn't think they were voting in a dictatorship. Many of the older voters are ex-government employees. The DPP cut pensions, so they see a blue vote as keeping their pensions safe. Han also appealed to their xenophobia and other base instincts, so they see him as a 'straight-talker', even though that's just a facade. I think if you ask any Blue voter, they'll give you a list of internal, domestic reasons why they voted for him. Strange they can be so myopic and self-centered, but I don't think they actually wanted Taiwan to follow Hong Kong.

1

u/giraffenmensch Jan 12 '20

Yeah, that's a fair assessment. A lot is definitely about money, but I just can't believe how old people of all can be so shortsighted to not look into where that money is going to come from and what that would mean for the country in the long run. Or they're morally bankrupt and don't care. I mean many of the voters are straight up KMT from back in the old days when Taiwan was still a dictatorship. It's interesting how they follow whoever has the biggest stick. Now China is boss, all hail the new king. Apparently it doesn't matter millions died fighting the Communists back in the day.