A new immigrants group is calling on fellow immigrants to vote for President Tsai Ing-wen and the legislative candidates of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Statistics released by the interior ministry show that there are more than 550,000 new immigrants in Taiwan. Of them, about 47% are eligible to vote in the presidential and legislative elections on January 11.
For the first time, the DPP nominated a new immigrant of Malaysian descent, Lo Mei-ling, for a legislator-at-large seat. Those seats are chosen by a separate ballot in which citizens vote for a party rather than a specific candidate. Lo has a very good chance of winning the race, because she’s high on the DPP’s list.
At a DPP campaign rally on Monday, Lo said the DPP has placed an emphasis on new immigrants.
“My representation will perhaps be [new immigrants’] only voice in the legislature. That’s because compared with other [political parties], the DPP is the only party that included a new immigrant on its list of [legislator-at-large] candidates. We hope that we can get a seat in the legislature. We can speak for ourselves. I would like to call on new immigrants to vote for the DPP," said Lo.
Lo said the DPP’s policies are friendly to new immigrants.