Republic of China presidential election, 2012

The presidential election in the Republic of China 2012 (Chinese中华民国 第十三 任 总统,副 总统 选举 于2012年) was held on 14 January 2012. It was the fifth direct election of a president in the Republic of China on Taiwan. Until the introduction of direct elections in 1996, the President had been elected by the National Assembly. On the same day elections were held for the Legislative Yuan. The election was won by an absolute majority of the incumbent Ma Ying- jeou of the Kuomintang.

• 4.1 Statewide Results
• 4.2 Results by polling districts

• 7.1 Interviews with the main candidates
• 7.2 campaign pages

Prehistory

The 2008 presidential election was won by the Kuomintang ( KMT ) by a large majority. Top candidate Ma Ying- jeou received nearly 60 % of the votes and was elected president. Shortly before the KMT -led pan- blue coalition won the elections to the Legislative Yuan and possessed so together with the coalition parties over a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The reason for this landslide victory was the extreme unpopularity of the then incumbent President Chen Shui -bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP ), who saw themselves exposed serious corruption charges. Shortly after losing an election Chen was tried and sentenced to several years ' imprisonment and heavy fine for corruption. Due to the solid majority in the parliament of the newly elected President Ma could enforce a policy according to his ideas. This included mainly an approximation to the People's Republic of China, whose culmination of the conclusion of a commercial treaty with the MFN clause ( ECFA = Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement ) was in Chongqing on June 29, 2010. The DPP rallied under the leadership of the newly elected party leader Tsai Ing -wen only gradually from their low popularity, which manifested itself in several won regional and local elections.

Candidates

At the 18th Congress of the Kuomintang on July 2, 2011 in Taichung, incumbent President Ma Ying- jeou was re-elected unopposed for top candidates. His Vice President Vincent Siew decided not to run again. On June 19, 2011 Ma announced that Premier Wu Den -yih was its candidate for the office of Vice-President. In public opinion polls on April 25 and 26, 2011, the DPP Chairman Tsai Ing -wen was elected as the top candidate of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP ). On September 9, Tsai said that, the Secretary-General of the DPP, would move into the election campaign, together with Su Jia- Chyuan as a candidate for the vice president post. On November 11, also gave James Soong his candidacy as a top candidate of the Qinmindang (English People First Party (PFP ) ) is known. For candidates for the vice presidency he chose Lin Ruey - Shiung, an emeritus professor of the National University of Taiwan, who had previously been politically active. On 9 December 2011, the order of the candidates was set to the ballot by the Central Election Commission. First up is the duo Tsai / Su, followed by Ma / Wu and Soong / Lin.

• The candidates in registering their candidacy
• Candidates of the DPP: Tsai Ing -wen (left) and Su Jia- Chyuan
• Candidates of the KMT: Ma Ying- jeou (left) and Wu Den -yih
• Candidates Qindang: James Soong (left) and Lin Ruey - Shiung

Campaign issues

TV debates

In most surveys in 2011, Ma was voter support in the lead. On 3 December 2011, a first televised debate with the three candidates took place. The main theme was, as might be expected, future relations with the People's Republic of China. The candidate of the DPP, Tsai Ing -wen denied that there is a consensus - would be " one China, two systems". President Ma (KMT ) accused the DPP of substance on this issue and underscored the position of his KMT government, which he summed up in the principle of " no unification, no independence, no use of force ". James Soong (PFP ) stressed that he was entering for maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait. He called on the People's Republic of China, their respect for the people of Taiwan by express that they Taiwan authorize the signing of free trade agreements with other countries and directed at Taiwan missile depart. On 17 December 2011, the second television debate of the top candidates took place. This Tsai Ing-wen said, from their fear that Taiwan would lose its sovereignty, President Ma another four years should remain in office. They also criticized the fact that the Taiwanese economy had during whose tenure lost momentum. She promised if elected to want to strengthen democracy and the quality of life of the people in Taiwan. They also want to increase social spending in some areas, and work toward a reduction of the urban-rural gap explained. President Ma focused in his statements on the topics of youth, children and women. These three groups were the ones who would decide the future of Taiwan. He stressed that during his tenure, more than 350,000 new jobs would have been created, significantly more than during the tenure of his DPP predecessor. Ma announced an increase in social spending for families with children. In foreign policy, he aspire to good relations across the Taiwan Strait over. He spoke in favor of the nomination of Taiwan to host the Olympic Games in 2024. James Soong, the candidate of the PFP, focused in his speech on national security issues. This was not only militarily but also financially and socially to see. He expressed the opinion that the greatest threat to the residents of Taiwan does not emanate from the missiles on the Chinese mainland, but from the nuclear reactors in the metropolitan region of Taipei, which are threatened by natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons and floods. He called for an expansion of renewable energies, a rollout of broadband Internet network and reduce national debt. In the debate, all three top candidates remained cautious in their statements concerning tax increases for top earners.

Allegations of corruption

A side issue were allegations of corruption. President Ma accused Ms. Tsai to be in a conflict of interest because it had granted as Deputy Prime Minister, 2007, the biotechnology company TaiMed Biologics Co. financial support and was then changed four months after the 2008 election to the executive chair of this company. Tsai accused Ma before then to abuse his position as president and to exploit the state apparatus for a smear campaign against them. The DPP called on Attorney General Huang Shih -ming, to investigate these allegations. She threw Ma ago to have accepted a donation of NT $ 15 million (U.S. $ 493.924 ) by Daniel Tsai, chairman of the Taipei Fubon Financial Holding Co. during the election campaign in 2008. Ma had campaigned as mayor of Taipei for the merger of Taipei Fubon Bank and Bank. The allegations were rejected by Ma, in turn, pointed out that his predecessor Chen Shui -bian of the DPP now sitting because of official corruption in the prison.

Shortly before the election

On January 11, 2012, when three days before the election date Former president Lee Teng- hui declared by the Kuomintang publicly expressed his support for Tsai Ing -wen. He justified this with the danger of too great a rapprochement with mainland China, whose kindness was only a tactical nature. On the same day, Douglas Paal, the former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan expressed ( AiT ) in an interview with the Taiwanese transmitter CtiTV that a re-election of President Ma would be a big relief for both the U.S. and Mainland China. The AiT hastened then determine that is just a personal opinion and not the official position of the U.S. government that would work with any future candidates elected you. Ms. Tsai spoke in favor of the formation of a grand coalition between DPP and KMT, should they win the election, which was rejected by President Ma. A coalition government was " unworkable " and only an optional tactical maneuver. Ma said he wished to apologize on behalf of the KMT for the mistakes in the past, especially for the events after the incident of 28 February 1947, the years of the anti-communist White Terror under the Kuomintang government in the 1950s to the 1970s. In return, he asked Ms. Tsai, make a public apology for the " years of corruption" under the DPP government from 2000 to 2008.

Election results

Statewide Results

The turnout was 74.38 %. Of the 13,452,016 18,086,455 eligible voters cast their vote, with 97 711 votes were invalid.

Results by constituencies

The following table shows the results in the 14 counties and 8 districts and centrally-administered cities. The percentage of votes and the winner is selected each red.

• Absolute majority of Tsai Jia- Chyuan Ing-wen/Su
• Absolute majority for Ma Ying-jeou/Wu Den-yih

Development immediately after the election

After the election of President Ma was clear congratulated representatives of various countries, including the White House and the U.S. State Department, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, Canada, the UK and other countries. Ma thanked his voters and declared the election of the " victory of the people of Taiwan ." He will now continue to follow the "path to a clean, peaceful and prosperous Taiwan". The chairman of the DPP, Ms. Tsai announced her resignation as party chairman. They commented on the critical part of the campaign of their party. The reasons for the defeat would now be analyzed in peace. On the question of relations across the Taiwan Strait, she said that these are very complex and not one could consider the simplified perspective of the KMT. She expressed her belief that there had to be on the relations across the Taiwan Strait a consensus in Taiwan, otherwise these issues would continue to be a source of social division.