In the legislative by-election on Jan. 26 in Greater Taichung’s second electoral district, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆) won by a margin of less than 1 percent.
This result will have little impact on the balance of power in the legislature. However, it was seen as a midterm test for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, a measure of gains and losses in momentum between Ma’s pan-blue camp and the pan-green camp and a defensive battle for survival between the area’s local factions.
It can also be seen as an initial skirmish in the buildup to next year’s seven-in-one local elections, and could have some influence over the presidential election scheduled for 2016.
For these reasons, a lot of attention has been paid to the Greater Taichung by-election and its result.
There are more than 275,000 registered voters in Greater Taichung’s second electoral district, which includes the Dadu (大肚), Wurih (烏日), Longjing (龍井), Shalu (沙鹿) and Wufeng (霧峰) administrative districts of the former Taichung county, plus the two boroughs of Dali District (大里).
Although these districts are on the outskirts of a big city, they retain rural characteristics.
Many newcomers have moved into the area in recent years, forming a sizable proportion of its population, but they are not necessarily registered in the district, meaning they are not eligible to vote there.
A consequence of this is that traditional local factions are still an important factor in elections, as are the “vote captains” who mobilize people to vote, and networks of families and friends.
In the previous two legislative elections, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union candidate Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) won easily, gaining the highest vote in all six administrative districts with nearly 60 percent, because the KMT granted his request not to field a party candidate.
Last year, in the presidential election, Ma made a clean sweep in this electoral district –– It has been a pan blue stronghold and not an area where the pan-green camp has enjoyed an advantage.
Campaigning for this by-election was a typical army versus air force battle, in which the two sides adopted quite different strategies.
As in past elections, local mobilization by the pan-blue forces relied principally on local factions, with local party offices only playing a supporting role. The KMT’s party symbol was not to be found anywhere in its candidate’s election literature.
The pan-blue candidate did his utmost to avoid partisan conflict in his campaign material, preferring to play the moderation card, the sympathy card, the service card, the local card and the fairness card. The two big local factions, known as the Red Faction and the Black Faction, presented a more or less united front.
While nearly every senior KMT figure turned up to support the campaign, the commander-in-chief — party chairman Ma — stayed out of the fray.
On the pan-green side, top Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leaders turned out in full force to stump for their candidate, Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱).
This was the first major battle for DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) since taking up the post, and he was especially keen to chalk up a success.
The DPP followed its previous pattern of raising the stakes by striving to create the image of a duel between the two rival parties, and even using it as a test run for a campaign to recall Ma.
With regard to the Yen clan, the DPP only touched on the issue by talking in moderate terms about “aspirations” and “electing someone who can be a good model for our children.”
With the top leaders from both sides joining the battle, the candidates themselves seemed to be relegated to supporting roles.
Yen Kuan-hen beat Chen by a mere 1,138 votes, and only by virtue of his home territory advantage in Shalu and Longjing districts. It is true that this close result had something to do with the Ma administration’s poor performance, but the DPP’s successful strategy and the waning power of local factions to mobilize voters were also important factors.
Although the DPP did not win the by-election, it was a glorious defeat and shows that the party has the potential to win future Greater Taichung elections.
The KMT candidate won the by-election, but by a very narrow margin, so the party has nothing to celebrate. Such a narrow victory is unlikely to improve the party’s morale and Ma will not gain any points from it.
Following recent setbacks for the KMT in Nantou and Changhua counties, it is now seeing ever-narrower majorities in Greater Taichung. This not only casts a heavy cloud on the party’s prospects for next year’s local elections, but also sounds an alarm over its strategic ambition in central Taiwan in the 2016 presidential contest.
Wang Yeh-lih is a professor of political science at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under