Election officials in seven townships in Nantou County began counting votes in a by-election for a seat in the Legislature, after the polls closed at 4 p.m.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Pei-hui (???) faces Lin Ming-chen (???) of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), who just finished two four-year terms as Nantou County magistrate in December.
Tsai, a former legislator-at-large, recently lost in the county magistrate election on Nov. 26 to KMT lawmaker (???) from the second electoral district in Nantou, who took office on Dec. 25, and her seat in the Legislature became vacant as a result.
Meanwhile, Lin was the lawmaker representing the electoral district for two terms before he became Nantou County magistrate in 2014.
The second electoral district covers seven of the 13 township-level administrative areas — Nantou City, Jhushan Township, Jiji Township, Mingjian Township, Lugu Township, Shueili Township and Sinyi Township.
A total of 205,390 residents in the electoral district are eligible to cast their ballots in Saturday’s by-election, according to the Central Election Commission.
Update: Vote counting completed at 5:41 p.m. with DPP’s Tsai Pei-hui winning the by-election with 45,218 votes. Her main rival, KMT’s Lin Ming-chen, received 43,293 votes.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel