In an extremely tight race in Kaohsiung, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Chu (陳菊) won her mayoral bid over Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英) by a razor-thin margin of 1,114 votes.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) said that Chen garnered 379,417 votes, while Huang obtained 378,303.
As the final votes were still being counted, the vote difference between Chen and Huang was getting smaller and smaller. Nevertheless, Huang still lost to Chen and placed second.
But given the small margin of votes by which Chen won the election, Huang will probably demand a vote recount and today he could very well initiate such a lawsuit to nullify the elections.
Kaohsiung and most of the southern cities are traditional pan-green strongholds; therefore, the DPP technically would be expected to capture more than enough votes to seize control of the city.
But given the recent scandals plaguing the first family and the resulting mood among DPP members, the DPP had not been able to hold a strong lead until about a week prior to the elections.
When looking at the issues that influenced voters in the Kaohsiung election, the key factors that led to a DPP victory are two-fold:
First, clashes in downtown Kaohsiung -- where Chen Chun-sheng (陳春生), convener of a "depose Chen" campaign office in the city, held a gathering aimed at building momentum for the anti-presidential campaign -- served to arouse a fierce reaction from DPP supporters and helped consolidate the cohesion of the DPP.
Second, Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) appearance on the stage at a campaign event in support of Chen also influenced pan-blue supporters' voting decisions.
Furthermore, a higher voter turnout of 67.93 percent, though lower than the turnout of 71.4 percent in the previous election, could also have influenced the election results in Kaohsiung since the higher the voter turnout, the more likely Chen was to be elected.
Other elements include previous DPP administrative achievements, such as the restoration of the Love River and other efforts to revive the arts and the cultural environment.
As to the political meaning of the election for next year's legislative elections under the new "single-member district, two-vote system," it is likely that the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the People First Party will evaporate and the future political landscape will become purely a DPP-KMT divide.
Also, if former President Lee Teng-hui (
In fact, standing at opposite ends of the spectrum of either supporting Taiwanese independence or advocating unification does not benefit Taiwan for the moment.
Whether Lee will be able to play an influential role in future politics will depend on what approaches he will choose to develop a consciousness for Taiwanese.
Also, the media should be blamed for the current political unrest.
"The media is a seed of poison planted by Taiwan" is a saying that reminds us not to be carried away by reporting which presents the political situation like a soap opera and causes people to become disillusioned.
It is ironic that pan-blue supporters do not use the same standard to judge President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) misuse of "state affairs funds" to examine irregularities in Taipei Mayor and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
There is clearly a double standard at work here. If the pan-blue supporters can have leniency in their hearts, then I believe that Taiwanese politics will move in a healthy and positive direction.
Lee Chung-pan is a professor in the Department of Marine Environment and Engineering at National Sun Yat-sen University.
Compiled by Lin Ya-ti
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Taiwan’s first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed on Tuesday evening at a hog farm in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), trigging nationwide emergency measures and stripping Taiwan of its status as the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, ASF and foot-and-mouth disease, a certification it received on May 29. The government on Wednesday set up a Central Emergency Operations Center in Taichung and instituted an immediate five-day ban on transporting and slaughtering hogs, and on feeding pigs kitchen waste. The ban was later extended to 15 days, to account for the incubation period of the virus
The ceasefire in the Middle East is a rare cause for celebration in that war-torn region. Hamas has released all of the living hostages it captured on Oct. 7, 2023, regular combat operations have ceased, and Israel has drawn closer to its Arab neighbors. Israel, with crucial support from the United States, has achieved all of this despite concerted efforts from the forces of darkness to prevent it. Hamas, of course, is a longtime client of Iran, which in turn is a client of China. Two years ago, when Hamas invaded Israel — killing 1,200, kidnapping 251, and brutalizing countless others
Art and cultural events are key for a city’s cultivation of soft power and international image, and how politicians engage with them often defines their success. Representative to Austria Liu Suan-yung’s (劉玄詠) conducting performance and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen’s (盧秀燕) show of drumming and the Tainan Jazz Festival demonstrate different outcomes when politics meet culture. While a thoughtful and professional engagement can heighten an event’s status and cultural value, indulging in political theater runs the risk of undermining trust and its reception. During a National Day reception celebration in Austria on Oct. 8, Liu, who was formerly director of the
RSS