TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Sunday (Jan. 21) talked about his own Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) shortcomings following the recent elections.
The TPP chair and eight at-large legislators held a “Ko Fans Meet-and-Greet” at Rongxing Garden in Taipei, per CNA. The meeting comes after Ko’s loss in his bid for the presidency.
Ko delivered a speech praising the success of the elections. However, he pointed out various deficiencies in his eyes, such as the inadequate organization of the TPP local branches, negative coverage from traditional media, and the difficulty of breaking through solely with independent media.
Addressing the criticism of inaccurate internal polls, Ko said he is conducting a thorough review and is considering establishing a TPP polling center in the future, per TaiwanHot.
Ko said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) have their polling centers, but the TPP is a small party with limited resources. If there were a dedicated TPP polling center the results would be more accurate, he said.
Regarding the 72% voter turnout, Ko claimed that a normal country, excluding about 12% to 15% of socially marginalized people who do not want to vote, would have a maximum turnout of around 87%. This year’s 72% turnout indicates there was still around 15%, those who want to vote but cannot, he claimed.
Ko claimed another successful aspect of this election was that for the first time in the past 20 years, elections were driven by a civic movement. He also claimed that only the TPP had volunteers, while other parties had party workers.