The Situation of the Presidential Election in Taiwan

Today, March 22nd, 2008, Taiwan conduct the presidential election to vote the new president of Taiwan. Here is my observation as a foreign student about the situation of Chung Li area (Taoyuan county), where I'm living now.

The Taiwan government declare that today is a national holiday to give all eligible voters give their vote to choose a new president. Last night people crowded and rushed public transportation to went home to their home town. As my observation in Chung Li (Taoyuan county), the streets are empty while in usual days it was crowded. Almost all shops, stores, cafes, salons, and other business fields are closed. But near 2 PM, several of them are open their business to serve their customers.

The eligible voters are they whose above 20 years old. So I can meet several students under 20 years old enjoy their holiday in the campus dormitory. As my observation, the public transportation such as train and bus still serving people, but in less interval than usual. May be in the evening, it will be back to normal time schedule since some of the voters go back to the city to work or study.

Several students that I met was talked that they need to choose a new president to make Taiwan be better than now, especially in economic growth and their position in the world.

Taiwan has an important position in the world since it was one of biggest semiconductor producer in the world beside Japan, Korea, and United States. Also the political relation between Taiwan and China is becoming one of very important issues in the world that all attention given at. So this election will be very important for all.

The president candidates are Ma Ying-Jeou from National Party and Frank Hsieh from Democratic Progressive Party. Both of them promise to develop a better relationship with China and all countries in the world.