Taiwanese are split as voting for the President looms
Part Two of The Current
Taiwanese are split as voting for the President looms - Lucetta Tsai
We started this segment with a small sample of opinion in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei as voters prepare for big elections tomorrow. The governing Nationalist Party and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party are fighting over the presidency and the 113 seats in Taiwan's Parliament .
The issue on many minds is the decades-old tension between Taiwan and mainland China. China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since the Nationalists fled to the island in 1949 after losing the civil war against Mao Zedong's Communists.
But despite the bad blood with the Communists, the Nationalists are now moving toward faster economic integration with China. On the other side, the DPP is more independence-minded and distrusted by Beijing.
Lucetta Tsai is watching developments closely in the lead-up to Saturday's election. She is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Office of International Affairs at National Taipei University, and has ties to the governing Nationals. Lucetta Tsai was in Taipei.
Taiwanese are split as voting for the President looms - Lin Chen Wei
Opinion polls suggest the race for the presidency has been close, and perhaps too close to call. though the incumbent, Nationalist President Ma Ying-jeou, is only slightly favoured. That's something of a surprise since President Ma's challenger in the Democratic Progressive Party, Ms Tsai Ing-wen, has never been elected to public office before.
Lin Chen Wei is a spokesperson for the opposition DPP and he was in Taipei as well.
Related Links:
- Taiwan elections: the 'little pigs' take on the 'big bad wolf' By: Naomi and Malcolm Moore - The Telegraph
- Ties to China Linger as Issue as Taiwanese Prepare to Vote By: Andrew Jacobs - New York Times
- Business backs Ma in Taiwan elections By: Robin Kwong - Financial Times
- Taiwan's top election issue: Voters are most concerned with economic improvement By: Ralph Jennings - Christian Science Monitor
- Taiwan's other election no less crucial for China ties By: James Pomfret - Reuters
Town Hall - Point of View
Yesterday Anna Maria Tremonti presented a special edition of The Current, that we called Fathers Without Fathers: Aboriginal Men in Canada. Statistics show there are far more First Nations children raised by a single parent -- most often their mother -- than in other Canadian families. We heard about the impact of absent fathers in a town hall from Whitehorse and then we heard from some people who were at the town hall in our inbox too. We had time for one letter.
We'll have more of your thoughts on the program next week on The Current. In the meantime, add your thoughts to the conversation.
Other segments from today's show: