The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday won an absolute majority in the 113-seat legislature for the first time, with 60 percent of its regional legislative candidates winning in their respective electoral districts and securing more than 44 percent of the vote.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has lost the 64-seat majority it won in 2012, retaining 35 seats in the legislature.
The newly formed New Power Party (NPP) had spectacular success, winning all three districts where it fielded regional legislative candidates and crossing the 5-percentage-point threshold to be awarded legislator-at-large seats.
Graphic: Constance Chou and June Hsu, Taipei Times
The most attention-grabbing legislators-elect are the NPP’s Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Freddy Lim (林昶佐), as well as the DPP’s Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Hualien County, who had all been predicted to have tough battles in traditional KMT strongholds.
The DPP achieved a home run in the cities and counties south of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) — Yunlin and Chiayi counties, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung City — winning a total of 21 seats.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was defeated in Keelung by the DPP’s Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應).
Graphic: Constance Chou, Taipei Times
In New Taipei City, which has 12 electoral districts and where KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) serves as mayor, the KMT lost eight seats that it formerly held, with only two lawmakers — Luo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Lin Te-fu (林德福) — retaining their seats.
The DPP won seven more seats than it had four years ago, securing nine seats, while the NPP secured one.
Huang, one of the leading Sunflower movement activists, defeated incumbent KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), who had been elected seven times in a row, in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止).
Photo: CNA
KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), whose “30-second ramming through” of the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 helped spark the Sunflower movement and who was seeking his fourth term, lost his seat to the DPP’s Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌).
In Taoyuan, where the KMT had won all six electoral districts in 2012, the DPP gained three seats, while the KMT retained two and an independent won one.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) snatched a seat in Hsinchu City, which had belonged to the KMT.
In Hsinchu County, former commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金), a non-affiliated candidate supported by the DPP, was defeated by KMT legislative candidate Lin Wei-chou (林為洲).
The KMT managed to retain two seats each in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
In Taichung, the KMT won three out of eight districts — dropping from five in 2012 — while the DPP won four, with Hung winning the final seat.
In Changhua County’s four electoral districts, the DPP gained three seats, while the KMT won one, a reversal of what the two parties won in the county four years ago.
In eastern Taiwan, both electoral districts in Hualien and Taitung counties saw their respective DPP candidates elected.
The outlying islands — Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu — elected DPP, KMT and KMT lawmakers respectively.
The DPP, KMT, People First Party (PFP) and NPP were the only four parties to cross the 5-percentage-point threshold for legislator-at-large seats.
A total of 18 candidates on the DPP’s legislator-at-large candidate list secured seats with the party’s 44 percent of party representation vote.
The KMT received 11 seats through 26.9 percent of party votes.
The PFP, with 6.5 percent of party votes, won 3 seats, while the NPP garnered 6.1 percent for 2 seats.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to
ONE LAST TALK: While Xi said that Taiwan was a ‘red line,’ Biden, in what is likely his last meeting with Xi as president, called for an end to China’s military activity around Taiwan China’s military intimidation and economic coercion against Taiwan are the main causes of tensions that are destabilizing peace in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei said yesterday while thanking US President Joe Biden for expressing Washington’s firm stance of maintaining peace and stability in the region. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met on Saturday for their third meeting and their first talks in seven months on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Lima, Peru. It was likely Biden’s last meeting as president with Xi. During their conversation, Biden reiterated the US’ opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” from either
Taiwan would participate in the 2026 APEC summit to be hosted by China after Beijing promised it would ensure the personal safety of attendees, Taiwanese national security sources said yesterday. The APEC Leaders’ Machu Picchu Declaration announced yesterday said that China would host the APEC summit in 2026. Beijing proposed hosting the summit shortly before this year’s gathering began on Friday, a national security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Many APEC members expressed concerns about China hosting the event and said that prior communication over the decision was insufficient, the official said. Taiwan brought up concerns about legal “guidelines” China announced in
RSS