Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆) won the legislative by-election in Greater Taichung’s second district yesterday against his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) by a small margin of less than 1,200 votes, managing to only just maintain the KMT’s momentum amid low approval ratings for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
Yen received 66,457 votes in the by-election, while Chen received 65,319 votes, according to the Tai-chung City Election Commission.
The by-election was held to fill a post left vacant by Yen’s father, former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), whose status was revoked after he was found guilty of corruption.
Photo: Liao Yau-tung, Taipei Times
Yen Kuan-hen’s campaign office unfurled a red banner and declared victory at about 5:30pm, while the official vote count at the time suggested that Chen was leading the race by several hundred votes.
Amid deafening cheers from supporters and exploding firecrackers, Yen Kuan-hen and his father showed up at the campaign office shortly after the self-declared victory and thanked voters for their support.
“It was a neck-and-neck race, but we’ve won the final victory. This is a victory for all Taichung residents in the district. My family and I will work harder to strive for the rights of local residents and to promote local development,” Yen Kuan-hen said.
Photo: Yu Po-lin, Taipei Times
Yen Ching-piao, an influential politician in the electoral district with a deep political presence even after he was found guilty of corruption, said they had fought a tough battle against the DPP and promised that his son will be dedicated in developing Greater Taichung.
“Thanks to local supporters and our campaign team, we managed to win the by-election while the overall environment is in a bad shape. My son will work harder than me in the legislature and spare no effort to serve the people of Greater Taichung,” he said.
Yen Kuan-hen’s victory became decisive as the vote count in the districts of Shalu (沙鹿) and Longjing (龍井) — two of the Yen family’s big support bases — showed that he was leading Chen.
Yen Ching-piao said the campaign office had planned to announce his son’s victory earlier because it finished the vote count after collecting the results from each booth, but delayed the announcement and recounted the votes over and over again to confirm the result as local media outlets suggested that Chen was leading their camp by 500 votes.
KMT Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) yesterday said the by-election result showed that Taichung residents approved of Yen Ching-piao and Yen Kuan-hen’s dedication to local development, and promised that the KMT and the government will strengthen their efforts to consolidate local support.
“The KMT will not be satisfied with the by-election result. We will be dedicated to local development and seek more support with with pragmatic acts,” he said.
According to the Central Election Committee, Greater Taichung’s second district, a traditional KMT stronghold, includes Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wurih (烏日), Dadu (大肚), Wufeng (霧峰) and part of Dali (大里) and is home to about 275,086 voters.
At about 7pm, Chen arrived at his campaign headquarters for his concession speech, in which he expressed appreciation for people’s “fearless support” under strong political pressure from local communities and said that he respected people’s choice despite losing the election.
The 36-year-old said the DPP “had worked extremely hard in the shortest campaign in history against the massive resources the KMT and the Yen family hold” and would keep up his effort in working for people in Greater Taichung.
The DPP campaign had a roller-coaster experience during yesterday’s vote-counting process.
Chen had taken a lead of about 500 votes less than 20 minutes into the ballot counting, which began at 4pm, and the margin increased to about 1,000 while supporters at the campaign headquarters looked upbeat about the outcome.
As television broadcasts showed that Yen Kuan-hen’s campaign surprisingly claimed victory at about 5:30pm and the vote count suddenly shifted in Yen Kuan-hen’s favor, the joyful mood turned into silence, with supporters staring at the TV monitor in disbelief.
The vote tally showed that Chen lost in the Yen family’s stronghold of Shalu by more than 3,000 votes and in Longjing by 1,500 votes, and those margins were too large to overcome.
The DPP had campaigned extremely hard in the relatively short 40-day campaign, with almost every party heavyweight visiting Greater Taichung every week to campaign for Chen and calling for voters to use the election as a vote of no confidence against Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman.
The strategy appeared to have worked wonders as the DPP turned the election into a close race, after its legislative candidate Lee Shun-liang (李順涼) lost to Yen Ching-piao by almost 39,000 votes, or about 20 percent of the total votes, in the same constituency in January last year.
“The DPP may have lost the election, but nevertheless proved that it was able to hold its own and compete with the KMT neck-and-neck in central Taiwan,” DPP Tainan City Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) admitted that the low turnout rate was worse than expected and the party had to figure out why voters did not come out to support the DPP, despite not being happy with Ma and the KMT’s performance.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source