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GV queues of people outside ballot office (3 shots)
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GV & CU Chiang Ching-Kuo voting (5 shots)
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GV People registering and voting (5 shots)
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Initials BB/1715 AMN/AH/BB/1720



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party won the majority of seats in a partial parliamentary election on Saturday (20 December).

Thirty-seven seats, left vacant by members' deaths, were filled. The ruling party succeeded in holding 30 of the seats in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's highest law-making body. Non-partisan candidates won seven seats. One of these won on a platform critical of the Nationalist Chinese Government.

An official poll showed that 73 per cent of the eight million eligible voters in Taiwan and off-shore islands turned out to vote in spite of the bad weather. Premier Chiang Ching-Kuo was among the early morning voters in Taipei.

The legislative Yuan has a total of 425 seats and those legislators other than the 37 were all elected in 1948 on the Chinese mainland. The election was only the second since the government moved its seat to Taiwan following the fall of mainland China to the communists in 1949.

SYNOPSIS: Heavy rain did not deter voters in Taiwan on Saturday who turned out for their partial parliamentary election.

Among the voters was Premier Chiang Ching-Kuo, leader of the ruling Kuomintang party. The party won thirty of the thirty-seven seats which were left vacant after members of the legislative assembly died. It was only the second election of its king since the government moved its seat to Taiwan following the fall of Mainland China to the Communists in 1949. An official poll showed that seventy-three per cent of Taiwan's eight million eligible voters turned out to vote.