By DPA
Taipei : Taiwan voters went to the polls Saturday to choose a new parliament in an election seen as a crucial indicator ahead of the March presidential race.
Some 17 million Taiwanese are eligible to vote for 113 members of parliament using a new electoral system that allows them to vote for both individual candidates and the political parties of their choice.
In the past, voters were given only one choice of candidate.
Voting was going smoothly at the 14,377 polling stations, despite reports of attempted vote buying by certain candidates.
President Chen Shui-bian cast his vote at a Taipei primary school. He called on Taiwan people to participate and to treasure Taiwan’s democracy.
“China will not allow Hong Kong to hold elections until 2017. That is 20 years after China took back Hong Kong (from colonial power Britain). Taiwan people should treasure their democracy and safeguard Taiwan’s democracy,” Chen said.
Turnout was estimated to be moderate at around 50 percent, lower than the 60 percent in the parliamentary elections four years ago due to public resentment over long-time political-party bickering between the ruling and opposition blocs, election experts said.
Based on pre-election voter surveys, the China-friendly main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), is expected to win 60 percent of the seats, while the independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is expected to get less than 40 percent of the seats due to declining support in the last year.
President Chen Shui-bian of the DPP has come under pressure to step down over a string of graft scandals linking him, his family and government, but has managed to survive.
In 2004, the DPP captured 89 of the then 225-seat Parliament, 10 seats more than the KMT. But the KMT forged an alliance with the People First Party (PFP) to obtain a slim majority in parliament.
A total of 12 parties have fielded 427 candidates.
Results are expected late Saturday night.