The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a legislative majority in yesterday’s election, securing 68 seats in the 113-seat legislature. With its ally the New Power Party (NPP) winning five legislative seats, the DPP is expected to enjoy unrestricted power in the parliament.
Before the elections, the DPP had called on voters to cast their legislative ballots for the party’s candidates to help it secure a majority in the legislature without the NPP’s assistance.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which held 64 legislative seats before the election, hoped to secure at least 38 seats to prevent the majority party or alliance to motion for a recall of the president, which can be done with a two-thirds majority in the legislature. The DPP got what it wanted, but not the KMT.
Graphic: Louise Ting, Taipei Times
DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “coattail effect” has helped the party sweep legislative votes.
However, the real force that carried the opposition parties to victory is probably the “awakened youth,” who have been calling for the removal of the KMT from government since 2014’s Sunflower movement.
The NPP, which was established in the movement’s wake, fielded three political novices in the election — a leading activist in the Sunflower movement, a famous metal singer and a victim-turned symbol of nationwide demonstrations against abuse in the military — as its regional legislative candidates. All three got elected, defeating three veteran KMT lawmakers.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
However, while the NPP has won representation in the legislature as expected, the 5 percent threshold has proved to be a hurdle for other small parties, such as the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, the Republican Party and the Faith and Hope League, which are among parties that were established following the Sunflower movement.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union, which had three seats in the 2012 legislature, failed to cross the 5 percent threshold this time. The rise of the NPP was definitely a factor, but its decision to team up with Le Flanc Radical, a Taiwan-independence group consisting of young people, has been considered a move that came too late to garner young votes.
The People First Party’s (PFP) crossing the threshold might be seen as a coattail effect of its party chairman and presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜). It was said that Soong’s bid, which was his third, was a ploy to campaign for party votes. It remains to be seen how the PFP would retain its so-called “non-blue, non-green and middle way” in a pan-green parliament.
The New Party, which received tacit support from Deputy Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) of the KMT and other KMT members who were dissatisfied with the party’s at-large legislative candidate list, made gains, winning more than 4 percent of party votes, while having only won 1.49 percent of the votes in 2012.
With the KMT’s rout, the distribution of the political power within the KMT and the pan-blue camp as a whole would be followed closely.
An interesting point raised by commentators is how the forced apology of Korean pop music group member Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) affected young voters and the elections’ outcome. It has been said that many young people decided to vote after the incident, in defiance of pressure from China. The DPP’s victory, in terms of its gains in party votes compared with what was expected, is said to be an outcome of the incident.
The KMT had secured 64 seats in a 113-seat legislature in 2012, while the DPP had 40 seats, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the PFP each had 3, the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union had 2 and independents, 4.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by