EP1. Taiwan’s Local Election

宣布當選、承認敗選，以及「三腳督」選舉的英文？

Taiwan’s local level election ended Saturday, November 26th. There’s a big shift in the political landscape, which triggered president 蔡英文 to step down as the head of the ruling party Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP.

But today, we are not talking about politics. We are going to share three useful expressions that often seen in the context of governmental elections.

The first one is “claim victory.” 

If someone claims victory during an election campaign, he or she announces that they are the winner of the competition. It’s often seen in Taiwan’s elections. When one candidate leads by a wide margin, they may declare they win, even before the official voting results are announced. Here’s an example sentence from Radio Taiwan International Twitter account: “KMT candidates in 基隆、台中、連江，and independent 苗栗 candidate claim victory in Taiwan’s local elections.”

基隆、台中、連江的國民黨籍候選人，以及苗栗縣無黨籍候選人，宣布當選。

The second expression is in the opposite. It’s “concede defeat.” 

When there’s no hope for a candidate to win the election, they may concede defeat, which means they admit, accept or acknowledge they lose the campaign. It’s a tradition in Taiwan that losing candidates also give a speech to concede defeat, thank their supporters, and maybe thank their competitors.

Here’s another example sentence from Taipei Times’s Twitter account: “桃園 mayoral candidate 鄭運鵬 of the DPP has conceded defeat.”

桃園民進黨候選人鄭運鵬承認敗選。

The last expression for today is about a campaign situation, a “3-way race.”

This is used to describe a situation where three prominent candidates are contending for one political position. It’s difficult for smaller parties to compete with two major parties, DPP and KMT, in Taiwan’s election. So, the one we saw in Taipei City is a rare scene.

Let’s take a look at the example sentence from Focus Taiwan website: “KMT candidate confident of winning a 3-way race for Taipei mayor.”

國民黨候選人有信心贏下三強鼎立的台北市長選戰。

Another example from Reuters: “Oregon Democrat Kotek wins tough 3-way race for state governor.”

奧勒岡州民主黨候選人Kotek打贏三強鼎立的選戰，成為州長。

Now, let’s recap the expressions. First, claim victory, to declare someone wins an election. Second, concede defeat, to admit someone loses an election. Third, 3-way race, a situation where three candidates fight for one political position.

Have you also learned something today? Leave us a comment on the blog post. We’d be glad to hear your voice or suggestions for future episodes. Until next time, bye-bye!

中文內容：

台灣的地方首長選舉在11月26號星期六畫下句點。國內的政治版圖有了很大的變動，進一步導致總統蔡英文辭去民進黨黨主席的職位。

不過今天我們不是要來談政治的，我們是要分享三個在選舉的時候常常會用到的英文用語。

第一個用語是 claim victory 也就是「宣布當選」的意思。

如果要說「候選人自行宣布當選」，我們就可以說 the candidate claims victory。

讓我們來看一下，來自中央廣播電台Twitter帳號的例句：

“KMT candidates in 基隆、台中、連江，and independent 苗栗 candidate claim victory in Taiwan’s local elections.”

基隆、台中、連江的國民黨籍候選人，以及苗栗縣無黨籍候選人，宣布當選。

第二個用語是承認敗選concede defeat。

通常當候選人落後太多，自認為沒有希望當選的時候，他們就會公開承認敗選，這時候就可以說他們conceded defeat。

讓我們來看台北時報的新聞標題：

“桃園 mayoral candidate 鄭運鵬 of the DPP has conceded defeat.”

桃園民進黨候選人鄭運鵬承認敗選。

最後一個用語，是「三強鼎立的選戰」，也就是本次出現在台北市的「三腳督選舉」，英文是：a three-way race。

讓我們來看中央社新聞標題：

“KMT candidate confident of winning a 3-way race for Taipei mayor.”

國民黨候選人有信心贏下三強鼎立的台北市長選戰。

你喜歡本期的節目嗎？你可以在我們的部落格上找到本機節目的中英文逐字搞。別忘了在文章底下留言告訴我們你的想法以及你的期待。下次見嘍拜拜。

# Jill Yang