Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday won the election, as forecast by pre-election polls, ending Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) incumbent Jason Hu’s (胡志強) 13-year-governance of the city.
Lin garnered 847,284 votes, or 57.06 percent of the vote, defeating Hu’s 637,531. The DPP’s Lin had a landslide victory in the race, securing 209,753 more votes than Hu and 117,000 more than in 2010.
In the mayoral election four years ago, Hu received 730,284 votes, or 51.12 percent of the vote, while then-DPP candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) received 698,358 votes. Even then the vote gap between the two was narrow, with Hu leading by only a little more than 30,000 votes.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The poll numbers before the election saw Lin in the lead, and the result confirmed the prediction.
As it became clear that he would lose the election before the official result was announced, the incumbent mayor appeared before the supporting crowd at about 7pm to express his gratitude to his supporters.
“The majority of the votes have been tallied. I think there’s no more need to defer my acknowledgment of defeat,” Hu said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“This is my own failure. I am not good enough and didn’t work hard enough. However, my campaign team has fought a good, flawless fight. There was no flaw in anybody’s performance or support during the campaign,” Hu said, adding that he “realized there was a possibility of losing the race.”
Lin also made a speech to his supporters before the Central Election Committee’s official statistics were announced, expressing gratitude and promising that he would be a mayor of all the city’s residents.
“I have to thank those who have voted for me to realize the ideals I’ve promised. However, I also have to express my gratitude, especially to those who have not been able to vote for me. Thank you for participating in this election, and your support will be the force to push us forward in the future,” Lin said.
Photo: Liao Yau-tung, Taipei Times
“We have received strong support particularly in the region that used to be Taichung County before the merger, and this has confirmed our observation that there is a problem of marginalization of the region and that a widened urban-rural divide exists,” he said. “Eliminating the gap and altering the uneven development will be our goal in the future.”
“The election has taken us beyond the barriers of generations and political parties. We have seen many young people’s passionate participation this time, reflected in their high turnout rate. We have also seen many who might have previously voted for the pan-blue camp voting for us this time,” Lin said.
“The votes, I believe, are not for me personally. This is a demonstration of civilism (市民主義) and Greater Taichung’s residents’ hope for a change,” he said.
GRAPHIC: TT
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
RSS