More than 19.31 million Taiwanese are expected to vote on January 11 for Taiwan's 15th presidential and vice-presidential elections. These Taiwanese are all eligible to vote, according to the Central Election Commission.
Eyeing the presidential seat is incumbent Tsai Ing-Wen of Taiwan's DPP, Han Kuo-yo of the Kuomintang, and James Soong of the People First Party. Observers believe it's a bottleneck competition between Tsai and Han.
According to CEC, 69% or 13.37 million of those voters are registered in six key municipalities, namely Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. Of that percentage, the majority, about 3.74 million, are aged 40 to 49 years old followed by those aged 50-59 at 3.63 million. Younger voters or those aged 20 to 23 years make up 6% of the electorate. Most of the latter demographic are first-timers in the precinct.
Taiwan's election laws state that citizens must have uninterruptedly resided in Taiwan for no less than six months before they can vote for president. For all other positions, the requirement is four months.
International players and different governments around the world are carefully watching Taiwan's 2020 elections. In fact, Taiwan expects more than 200 foreign media reporters are expected to be flying in to cover the event.
Of that, 150 are representatives of particular foreign media while 60 are foreign correspondents already based in Taiwan. Officials have yet to name the media but reports said German Press Agency is coming, as well as Swiss Radio and Television, and the U.K newspaper The Telegraph. These names had reportedly attended DPP's press conference this week already.
There will also be foreign delegations in attendance to observe the 2020 Taiwan elections. The delegations are coming from Europe, according to Ke Liang-ruey, Taiwan's deputy chief of the Department Of European Affairs ministry.
Specifically, the delegations are coming from Sweden - four parliamentary representatives - Ireland - five - and Denmark. The latter's delegation includes political scholars and researchers.
The ministry also said that there would also be several US and European think tanks that will observe Taiwan's 15th presidential election. In line with this, a senior U.S. defense official said America is closely monitoring Taiwan's elections, hoping for a "free and fair" process.
Taiwan's 2020 election is perceived as a deciding moment on whether Taiwan will continue to be independent of China or will embrace the Asian powerhouse's authority over it.
