In photos: Costumes, color and singing candidates — welcome to a Taiwanese election-ZoomTech News

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Amid a stunning show of coloration and theatrics, Taiwan, the one Chinese language-language democracy, is making ready to elect a brand new president this weekend. That is solely the eighth democratic presidential election within the island’s trendy historical past, so Taiwanese folks cherish the correct to vote.

Marketing campaign rallies are nearly theatrical. Musicians are sometimes employed to attain candidate’s stump speeches in actual time, in order they attain significantly emotional moments the music swells to accentuate the viewers reactions.

In lots of cases, the musician is a very powerful particular person on the rally — in addition to the candidates, after all — for one easy purpose: they supply the emotion.

At one rally for the Kuomintang (KMT) occasion, 1000’s of individuals collect at Dajia Riverside Park to cheer on candidate Hou Yu-ih. The ambiance is loud and raucous, and the group is a sea of KMT flags.

One girl, who calls herself Ji Dong Jie — or “excited sister” in Mandarin — is clearly a fixture on the rally circuit. She is wearing a vivid crimson pantsuit, sparkly Mylar boas and rhinestone-studded heels. Her large fluffy pink hat is adorned with two Taiwanese flags that wave within the air as she leads the group in an impromptu dance.

“It is all DIY,” she tells NPR in Mandarin, including that she goes to each KMT rally. “I would like the KMT to work for peace. I do not need independence for Taiwan. I would like relations with the U.S. to be good, and I would like relations with China to be good. We’re all one household.”

In the meantime, marketing campaign occasions hosted by the rival Democratic Progressive Get together (DPP) are typically quieter, however no much less festive. The present DPP Vice President, Lai Ching-te (often known as William Lai) is working to be the island’s new president and is favored to win.

At one reelection rally for a DPP legislator named Su Chiao-hui, volunteers costume in vivid inexperienced vests and hand out steaming, recent baoand marketing campaign souvenirs. Different candidates take pictures with supporters, and present president Tsai Ing-wen even makes an look to indicate her assist.

Voters on the DPP rally sit on stools organized in neat rows, many sporting white baseball caps with Su’s identify emblazoned on the entrance.

As a part of their campaigns, legislative and presidential candidates typically journey in caravans via their districts, standing on open truck beds to wave to their constituents for hours at a time.

Over loudspeakers, Su calls out her because of individuals who voted for her, and sometimes bursts into tune. Her supporters cheer and wave from avenue corners and doorways, holding flags and giving her two thumbs up.

Su says she’s sporting a vivid pink vest (her marketing campaign coloration) as a result of she seems to be good in it and it flatters her pores and skin, even when she is not sporting any make-up.

Posters of presidential candidates and their working mates may be seen in every single place in Taipei – certainly, all through the island – on billboards, avenue lamps and the perimeters of buildings.

The celebratory nature of campaigning in Taiwan doesn’t imply that folks on the island aren’t taking the election significantly. As each election approaches, the difficulty of China takes middle stage.

Broadly talking, each the DPP and KMT favor sustaining the established order between Taiwan and China and each would love Taiwan to stay self-governed, even when it isn’t formally unbiased.

Individuals on the island are additionally frightened about low wages and the rising value of residing. Some imagine the DPP hasn’t paid sufficient consideration to the financial system over the previous eight years of President Tsai’s administration.

Many youthful voters really feel disillusioned with each the DPP and the KMT, and have flocked to Ko Wen-Je, a third-party candidate on the poll this yr, representing the Taiwan Individuals’s Get together, or TPP.

As Taiwanese folks put together to go to voting stations on Saturday, the result — and the way forward for the island — stays to be seen.