Although the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continues to hold more local council and township mayor seats following Saturday’s local elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made significant progress in many cities and counties.
The DPP won a total of 128 county or city council seats in the 17 cities and counties where council elections were held on Saturday, while the KMT secured 289.
Compared with 2005, the DPP won 21 seats in the 17 counties and cities while the KMT lost 22.
Although the numbers may not seem as significant, the DPP’s advances were a surprise for several political observers.
In Keelung City, all of the DPP’s nine candidates for the city council were elected, in Hsinchu City, its seven candidates for city council were elected, while in Yunlin County, its 13 candidates for the county council were elected.
At present, the DPP holds six seats in the Keelung City Council, five in the Hsinchu City Council and five in the Yunlin County Council.
In Miaoli County, a KMT stronghold, four of the DPP’s five candidates for the county council were elected.
The DPP has two members in the Miaoli County Council.
In the township mayor elections, the DPP increased its number of seats from 20 to 35 — including the party’s Miaoli chapter director and Yuanli Township mayor-elect Tu Wen-ching (杜文卿), who ran as an independent and won the party’s first mayoral office in the county — while the number of township offices under the KMT dropped from 122 to 121.
For the first time in history, Saturday’s elections saw the DPP take KMT strongholds including Gueishan Township (龜山) in Taoyuan County and Hualien City (花蓮) in Hualien County, while the party also won the mayoral race in Yucih Township (魚池), Nantou County, for the first time.
The DPP’s Tien Chih-hsuan (田智宣), former mayor of Jian Township (吉安), Hualien County, also won the Hualien City mayoral race with 22,031 votes, the first time the DPP won a Hualien mayoral seat. Tien won against the KMT’s Lin Yu-chih (林有志) by labout 900 votes.
The Labor Party’s Hsinchu County councilor-elect Kao Wei-kai (高偉凱) was the party’s first member to be elected to public office.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
‘NEW NORMAL’: A Japanese official said the drills show that the PLA can carry out large maneuvers without announcement, ‘leaving all of us struggling to respond’ Beijing’s recent naval exercises have left Taiwan and the US “struggling” for a response as the two nations drew different conclusions about the implications of the Chinese military drills, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. Taiwan has been bracing for China to hold military drills to retaliate against President William Lai’s (賴清德) diplomatic visits abroad, the outlet said, referring to Lai’s Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 tour to Taiwan’s three South Pacific allies, which included stopovers in Hawaii and Guam. Beijing announced partial air traffic restrictions across seven time zones along its coast from Shanghai to Hong Kong over two days. Yet,
CONNECTED: A survey of students from third grade to university seniors showed that 80% had cellphones, spending on average 37.27 hours per week on them Line users in Taiwan made an average of 100 million voice or video calls each day this year, while “like/thumbs up” was the most frequently used emoji in reaction to a message on the service, the Tokyo-based operator of the messaging app said yesterday. The app’s ability to adjust the quality of video and voice calls helps contribute to its frequent use, LY Corp said in a statement. As of Nov. 30, Line users in Taiwan spent an average of about one hour per day on the app, often checking it in the morning for messages that might have come through overnight,
RSS