The results of yesterday's Yunlin County commissioner by-election appeared to surprise no-one, as independent candidate Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) walked away with a victory -- albeit by a narrow margin.
While Chang singled out president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for praise -- despite being an independent candidate -- the DPP predicted the victory would give organized crime leaders encouragement to become increasingly involved in future elections in Taiwan.
The victory appeared to be a vindication for Chang Jung-wei, who lost out in the 1997 commissioner election to the KMT's Su Wen-hsiung (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
On the face of it, the defeat was humiliating for the KMT, which sent down its top brass to campaign on behalf of its candidate. Accordingly, John Chang, the party's secretary-general, announced he was prepared to tender his resignation.
After receiving news of the defeat last night, Chang visited President Lee, the party chairman, at his residence to offer his resignation.
Lee, however, rejected the offer. A statement released from the KMT spokesman's office quoted the president as saying the Yunlin by-election was local in nature, and that there "were many related influences" in the result.
The statement added Lee had urged Chang to stay on, and hoped he would "take a rest for a couple of days."
Meanwhile, the independent candidate was raising a few eyebrows down in Yunlin by singling Lee out for appreciation and praise, especially for his "promotion of democracy."
Confirming the victory around 6pm last night -- two hours after ballot-counting began -- Chang Jung-wei vowed that he would cash in all his so-called "platform checks," or campaign promises, to build up Yunlin County during his two-year period in the commissioner's post.
Speaking amid cheers and applause from supporters, with his daughter and wife present at his headquarters in Touliu, Chang was quick to credit the chairman of his former party.
"We are preparing to give Yunlin residents their dignity back. And I have to thank President Lee, because the president carried out democratic reforms and therefore gave me the opportunity to campaign in this election," he said.
Chang's spokesman, Kao Meng-ting (
At the same time, down the street about 600 meters away, DPP candidate Lin Chung-li led his campaign's staff members in a deep bow to supporters.
Bringing up the issue of vote-buying, which he had continually warned against throughout the campaign, Lin said he worried about the future of Yunlin, where the problem of gangster involvement and "money politics" would only worsen.
"Only the DPP campaigned on the basis of a `clean election with integrity.' We neither bought votes nor got involved with gangsters," Lin said. "Yet we still were beaten by `black-gold,' and I am therefore worried that organized crime groups may increase their power."
DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and Chen Shui-bian, who both campaigned extensively for Lin, both said from the DPP's central headquarters that they were disappointed by the result -- which they said indicated Yunlin residents could not put an end to the county's "gangster" problem.
"We may not have done enough to persuade Yunlin residents to accept our platform -- to effect a shift in power and terminate the `black gold,'" Chen stressed.
Other DPP heavyweights had also campaigned extensively in the county, in what they said was an attempt to persuade local residents that if Chang Jung-wei was elected, gangster organizations might be encouraged to join other elections for the chiefs of local administrations.
"In past decades, gang leaders could only run for positions as low-level representatives such as county or city councilors, or as lawmakers. But Chang's victory can be recorded as a landmark, one that may lead organized crime leaders to compete with other politicians for county commissioner or even higher-level elections," said Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), former Taipei deputy secretary-general.
The KMT's candidate, Chang Cheng-hsiung (
Further explaining the party's poor showing, KMT officials said they suspect some factions did not throw their support behind Chang Cheng-hsiung, and even gave their support to Chang Jung-wei.
"Where did Chang Jung-wei's money and other supplies come from? They could be from factions within the KMT. The increased votes he got are from those defecting from the KMT," said Johnson Chen (陳瓊讚), director of the KMT organizational affairs department.
see on page
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat