10 years ago, the New Party was the 3rd biggest party in Taiwan (after the KMT & DPP) – polling a creditable 13% in the Legislative elections that year. In 2005 they were beaten by a spelling mistake:
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.
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.
The full name of the KMT is the Zhōngguó Guómíndǎng (literally “Chinese Nationalist Party”). In Chinese characters this is written 中國國民黨.
The Chinese People Party on the other hand is called Zhōngguó Mínzhòngdǎng, which is written 中國民眾黨 in Chinese characters.
When you’re beaten by a party whose only claim to fame is that their name is slightly similar to the second most popular party – that’s a sign it might be time to quietly disband.
I wonder whether the PFP is worried that the same fate may be in store for them? Perhaps they should be.
Dear Jujuflop,
My name is Julien. I am building a new website for expatriates, and will be the webmaster of http://www.expat-blog.com. In the last three years I have spent a lot of time travelling and living away from my home country, hence me setting up http://www.expat-blog.com.
I had the idea to create a blog so I could share my experiences of living abroad and keep in touch with my family and friends. While reading other expatriate blogs the idea came to me to create a classified expat blog directory. This would include a free blog hosting platform with interesting features such as picture albums designed specifically for expatriates. I do not believe this would be in competition with existing blog platforms such as blogger.
The website is still in working progress. The present situation is as follows:
> The expatriate blog directory, including a classification per country and language – I am working on this at the present time
> The free Blog platform – this section will be completed by the middle of June.
> An Expat resource directory – this will include all expatriate suggestions.
> A forum designed to encourage interactivity and questions/answers from expatriate to expatriate
This is the global presentation of the website. Do you think my project is a good idea?
Would you like to add your blog in the expatriate blog directory?
I look forward to hearing from you
Julien
Thanks for another rollicking good post. You know, I always forget that there is even a New Party. out with a whimper….