On Saturday, Taiwan held an election for members of the National Assembly, a body to be abolished after it completes the work awaiting it on the revision of the nation’s Constitution. <\/p>\n
This was an unusual election in that people did not vote for candidates but for parties. <\/p>\n
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party — the Mínzhǔ Jìnbùdǎng<\/span> (民主進步黨), or the Mínjìndǎng<\/span> (民進黨) for short — won the largest share of the vote, followed by the former ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT). <\/p>\n One of the interesting results of the election is that the relatively unknown Chinese People Party picked up 41,940 votes, or 1.0822% of the ballots, outperforming better-known groups such as the New Party, the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, and the Taiwan Independence Party. <\/p>\n How does all this relate to the themes of this Web site? I’m getting to that. <\/p>\n A spokeswoman for the KMT said that she suspected the Chinese People Party siphoned away some of the KMT’s votes because people were confused about the name. Although I tend to have little regard for the election-related claims of the KMT, especially since the 2004 presidential election, in this case I think the assertion is correct. (I should add, however, that even if the KMT had taken every single vote of the Chinese People Party, the DPP would still have come out on top by a comfortable margin.)<\/p>\n The full name of the KMT is the Zhōngguó Guómíndǎng<\/span> (literally “Chinese Nationalist Party,” as the Taipei Times<\/i> is fond of reminding its readers). In Chinese characters this is written 中國國民黨. <\/p>\n The Chinese People Party on the other hand is called Zhōngguó Mínzhòngdǎng<\/span>, which is written 中國民眾黨 in Chinese characters. <\/p>\n Compare the following: I can see how some might confuse these two, especially since the Chinese People Party appeared third on the ballot, compared with the KMT, which appeared tenth. <\/p>\n But would the names be as likely to be confused in romanization? I doubt it. <\/p>\n Compare the following: The constitutional changes are slated to include a change to a two-ballot system: one for a local candidate and one for a political party. Thus, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone starts a party soon with a name similar to that of the DPP. Any suggestions for the new 民主XX黨?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Saturday, Taiwan held an election for members of the National Assembly, a body to be abolished after it completes the work awaiting it on the revision of the nation’s Constitution. This was an unusual election in that people did … Continue reading
\n中國國民黨
\n中國民眾黨<\/p>\n
\nZhōngguó Mínzhòngdǎng<\/span>
\nZhōngguó Guómíndǎng<\/span><\/p>\n