The official campaign period for Saturday's mayoral elections in Kaohsiung and Taipei began on Friday, but voters still seem cold to the occasion, perhaps because of the scandals surrounding President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) use of the Presidential Office's "state affairs fund" and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) use of his special mayoral allowance fund.
Last September in Kaohsiung, former acting Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi-mai (
Chen Chu comes from the DPP's New Tide faction, but she is considered an energetic person, so after Chen Chi-mai became her campaign manager a few months ago, differences of opinion with the party's factions subsided and former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh's (
The biggest factor was the rise of the movement against the president in the south, which stimulated a sense of crisis among deep-green supporters. Originally, they were not interested in the mayoral election because of the DPP's poor performance, but they had no choice but to put aside their anger over the president's "four noes, one without" policy and cross-strait integration rhetoric. This saved the president and helped Chen Chu's campaign.
After news of the Presidential Office "state affairs fund" scandal broke, many DPP members drew a line between themselves and the president, or even withdrew from the party. This has put Chen Chu into a difficult position, as she does not know whether she should continue to work for the New Tide faction or the for the DPP.
Still, her cautious attitude towards the opening of cross-strait links shows that she feels the need to differentiate her policy stance from that of her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Huang Jun-ying (
Recently, the controversy surrounding Ma's special mayoral allowance fund has boosted the DPP's morale, as well as Chen Chu's support ratings. But in the Kaohsiung race, her Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) rival Lo Chih-ming (
At this moment, apart from attracting more votes for herself and the DPP's councilor candidates, she also has to pray that Lo will only attract votes from the blue camp.
In Taipei, the voter structure is relatively favorable to the blue camp, and the green camp does not have a chance if the blue camp does not split. People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's (
The KMT's own mayoral candidate, Hau Lung-bin (
Compared with Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Moreover, Hsieh has merely demonstrated his quick wits and eloquence in the campaign so far, but people seem to have forgotten that he was in fact the premier earlier this year. This might not be a bad thing come election day.
Of all the parties, the TSU is in the most awkward position. Originally, the confrontation between the ruling and opposition camps should have given the TSU the chance to play the role of a crucial, balancing party.
Unfortunately, the polarization of the blue-green confrontation has pushed voters back to traditional foes. Judging from the constitutional amendment cutting the legislature in half, the DPP would rather treat the TSU as another party faction than see it grow further. The party remains polite to the TSU on the surface, but no actual integration will ever take place.
Besides, although their competition is not so intense at the grassroots level, the TSU's candidates do not know how to distinguish themselves from their DPP rivals without being interpreted as fishing in troubled waters. Due to this dilemma, it is the TSU that now finds itself in troubled waters.
Shih Cheng-feng is a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Tamkang University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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