TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Large-scale electoral fraud is not possible in Taiwan, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Wednesday (Jan. 17), rejecting allegations by some of his supporters.

The party leader finished third in the Jan. 13 presidential election, receiving 26% of the vote compared to the 40% won by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and 33% for Kuomintang (KMT) contender Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜). Internal polls by the TPP gave a much better prediction for its candidate, per CNA.

Responding to allegations that the surveys might have been forged, Ko said such a practice was impossible. Instead, the polls had overestimated the eventual turnout of younger voters, usually seen as more likely to vote for the TPP, he said.

A higher participation of young voters would have raised Ko’s result in the election, but the overall turnout was only 71%, he said. The party had been unable to attract more older voters and counter strategic voting by people estimating Hou would have a better chance of unseating the DPP.

Several supporters expressed doubts about the possibility of electoral fraud, UDN reported. However, Taiwan was already a mature democracy, so while small incidents could not be excluded, large-scale electoral malpractice was impossible, according to Ko.

He mentioned the lack of absentee and online voting as serious shortcomings in Taiwan's democratic system. One task of the party’s eight new lawmakers would be to demand a speeding up of the digitalization of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Ko said.