Kuan An-lu (管安露/CNA file photo)

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) has welcomed the help offered by a Taiwanese business association based in China to secure airfare discounts for Taiwanese who work in China to return home to vote in local elections on Nov. 24.

SEF Deputy Secretary-General and spokesperson Kuan An-lu (管安露) welcomed the gesture on Friday, saying the foundation looked forward to Taiwanese businesspeople in China returning home to exercise their right to vote.

Discount fares have typically been found in past elections to boost the turnout rate of Taiwanese nationals living in China, Kuan said, whose semi-official agency is responsible for handling contacts with China in the absence of official ties.

The SEF official said, however, that she did not expect Taiwanese students in China to return home to vote in the elections in large numbers because the vote will be held in the middle of the school year.

There are also no signs of Taiwanese business groups in China planning to organize charter flights home for the elections, she said.

According to Hu Hsing-chung (胡興中), vice president of the Shanghai Association of Taiwan, the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland has already reached an agreement with several airlines across the Taiwan Strait to provide fare discounts.

The discounts offered by each airline will soon be disclosed, according to the association.

Taiwanese nationals living overseas have to return home to vote because Taiwan does not have an absentee ballot system.

(By Miao Zong-han and Ko Lin)
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