The "iron vote" is a political term for a
voter
Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representatives ...
that can be reliably counted on to vote for one party or another. This phrase was most notably used beginning as early as a decade ago in
Asian democratic elections, specifically
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
: Taiwanese . These usually include strong supporters of
Taiwan independence
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of Chi ...
or
Chinese unification
Chinese unification, also known as Cross-Strait unification or Chinese reunification, is the potential unification of territories currently controlled, or claimed, by the People's Republic of China ("China" or "Mainland China") and the Repub ...
.
[(chines]
the swift Iron vote of green faction in Kaohsiung
/ref>
The Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
(KMT) was defeated in 2000 elections by the loss of iron votes. The result shows that "iron vote" can only be taken as reference. People who strongly believe in their "iron vote" may have an unexpected outcome.
The same term is also used in Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, referring to strong supporters of the pro-democracy camp or the pro-Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
camp.
A related term in United States politics
In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches share powers: Congress, which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legi ...
is yellow dog Democrat. The opposite is a swing vote
A swing vote is a vote that is seen as potentially going to any one of a number of candidates in an election, or, in a two-party system, may go to either of the two dominant political parties. It usually comes from voters who are 'undecided' or ...
r.
See also
*Iron rice bowl
"Iron rice bowl" () is a Chinese term for an occupation with guaranteed job security, similar to life tenure. Traditionally, people considered to have such positions include military personnel, members of the civil service, as well as employees ...
*Safe seat
A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...
*Elections in Taiwan
Nation-wide general and local elections are held every four years, typically in January and November. By-elections and referendums are held on occasion. Electoral systems include first-past-the-post, proportional representation, single non-transf ...
References
External links
Adam Carr's Election Archive
Politics of Taiwan
{{Taiwan-poli-stub