According to the report of Hong Kong media there are only 6 days to go before the election for the "legislative committee members" is going to be held in Taiwan. The fierce ways in the competition have exposed to the public the unique politics and culture in Taiwan Island.

The heated election in Taiwan will often and always make the outsiders feel dizzy and giddy to look at it. You can see banners and streamers for the propagation of the election everywhere you go, and on the boards you'll see beaming faces of the candidates, sweeping streets everywhere for winning votes. In a word, the activities for rousing up the atmosphere are really feverish. The political parties, helpers for the election and candidates all come out with various kinds of tricks to attract voters.

The People's Progressive Party in power and the small party, Taiwan Solidarity Union in favor of "Taiwan Independence", namely the Pan�Cgreen camp and the Pan-blue alliance consisting of the Kuomintang not in office, the People First Party and the New Party are locked in a fierce competitive struggle in order to win over half of the seats in the "Legislative Yuan".

Topics too narrow, impractical

For the moment Taiwan is faced with many realistic problems to be solved in the fields of farmers, education and health insurance, pointed out Wang Gaocheng, director of the institution for the research of international affairs and strategy of the Tasmkang University. However, in the process of this election for the "legislative committee members" these questions are not only seldom mentioned, on the contrary, they are replaced and manipulated by political phase with signs and slogans.

He said, "the election is considered to be an succession of the general election and it's still impossible to step out from the topics over-politicalized. Actually, the function of the legislative members is not only for things political but rather the livelihood of the people. Therefore, the topics for discussion (in this election) are too narrow and do not cater to the reality."

Helpers for election putting the candidates in the shade

To win victory in the election, the highest authorities of both Pan-blue alliance and Pan-green camp are now out in the public and even those known as the "four celestial kings" with special ability in agitation and persuasion have come out to help with the election. The impetus of the election helpers is riding over that of the candidates, Professor Wang Gaocheng of Tamkang University is of the opinion. This has put the candidates in the shade make them unable to show themselves. Therefore, the voters are difficult to make significant choices.

Resorting to extremities in the election campaign

Su Zhengfeng, Associate professor of the department for public administration of Tamkang University points out, one of the problems for this "legislative election" lies in "plural system for electoral district", i.e. each district may select several "legislative committee members" and normally they can get elected only by winning 5 to 10 percent of the votes from the district. This has made the candidates to resort to extreme measures in order to stimulate the votes in the election

Too many nominations

Prof. Wang Gaocheng also points out that both camps have committed the same mistake this time. "Both parties have witnessed an overlapping nomination in their insides and so there is a problem of grabbing for votes, striving for votes and allotment of votes. And in handling these problems there is a problem of technical manipulation, making the election, namely to select able and virtuous persons, unable to display its real significance.

By People's Daily Online