Though the opposition alliance generally agrees that their is a need to cooperate in order to win the year-end legislative and local government elections, fierce intra-party and inter-party competition is threatening the cooperation, political analysts say.
"Besides the fight [for the limited number of votes] among members of the same party, there is an inter-party one: the New Party is facing a threat from the PFP and the KMT is facing a threat from the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the PFP," said Chou Yu-jen (周育仁), a professor of public administration and policy at National Taipei University.
"All these facts show that for inter-party cooperation in the elections [will be] difficult," Chou added.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The alliance, consisting of the KMT, PFP and New Party, hopes to garner over half of the legislative seats so as to force the DPP to surrender the right to form the Cabinet.
It is, however, questionable as to whether this goal can be achieved, in light of the large number of candidates that the parties have nominated in many constituencies.
For example, in the Taipei-north and Taipei-south constituencies where 10 seats each are up for grabs, the three parties combined have nominated 11 candidates in each constituency.
Both the PFP and New Party have opted to nominate as many legislative candidates as possible, in what is a strategy to ensure they could win a target number of votes, which is considered crucial to their own development.
The PFP needs to amass as much political leverage as possible to become a party comparable to the KMT and DPP, so as to breathe life into PFP Chairman James Soong's (
The New Party is facing a crisis of survival, it needs to win at least 5 percent of the votes to maintain its existence.
In light of their overlapping support base, the competition among candidates from the three parties is expected to decrease their individual votes and result in their defeat.
"The more candidates are nominated doesn't mean the more will get elected. The more that are nominated, the more harm the parties will suffer," said Emile Sheng (
The planned cooperation in the local government elections, meanwhile, has seen little progress.
The KMT and PFP have planned to work together to win the commissioner posts for Taipei, Taoyuan, Taitung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Penghu Counties, but no attempts cooperation have been successful thus far.
In the Taipei County constituency, which is seen as symbolic of the cooperation effort as a whole, the two parties have nominated separate candidates after they failed to agree on one. Even the New Party, which originally had no intention to join the local government elections, has now decided to name its own candidate to run for the Taipei County commissioner post.
According to analysts, one reason for the problems with cooperation is the fact that a political party's presence in a local government election usually can help boost its legislative election campaign in the same constituency.
"If the KMT and PFP don't have a candidate in the county commissioner election, the morale of their legislative campaign may be affected," Chou said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique