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KMT beats expectations, DPP gains

The KMT yesterday promised to help its elected officials provide better services to the people in the wake of its victory in yesterday's elections.

The DPP, which maintained the number of township and county municipalities it controls, pledged to work harder to boost popular support for the party at the local level.

KMT Secretary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正) said the outcome of the elections was far better than the party forecast.

"This shows that people at the local level still have considerable expectations of the party," Lin said.

"We will definitely help those elected to offer better services to pay back the people [for their support]," Lin added.

Since the last local elections in 1998, the DPP has come to power and two parties, the People First Party (PFP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) , have been formed, Lin noted.

Lin said that the KMT's success in winning 226 townships and county municipalities despite these changes showed that the party's political appeal now stretches even further and deeper than it did four years ago.

The 226-seat figure was unconfirmed at press time.

The KMT won 237 townships and county municipalities in 1998.

More than a dozen of these local chiefs left the KMT to join the PFP or TSU, leaving the KMT with 219 townships and county municipalities.

The newly-elected chiefs will be sworn in on March 1.

In the councilor races, the KMT won 383 seats, compared with 530 seats in 1998 elections.

The DPP, which controlled 28 townships and county municipalities, retained the same number of chiefs in yesterday's elections. It won 146 councilor seats, a 16-seat gain.

DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said the situation was similar to the outcome of the Dec.1 legislative races and the elections for county commissioners and city mayors, when the DPP won more seats as representatives but made no major gain in the races for local government heads.

"This means that the DPP's popularity at the local level has not yet reached 50 percent, and the party will have to work harder for a breakthrough," Hsieh said.

Hsieh said the party's elected county councilors will promote reforms to boost the quality of local politics.

Meanwhile, the PFP, which contested these seats for the first time, gained four township and county municipalities. It won 49 councilor seats.

According to PFP Secretary-General David Chung (鍾榮吉), the number of seats won did not reflect the actual strength of the PFP, as some independent candidates elected are actually PFP supporters.

"The PFP has been around for less than two years and has only a small number of local elected officials and members. But surprisingly, we have many votes," Chung said.

The TSU, which won only seven seats in the councilor races, was not very satisfied with the result.

TSU spokesman Hsiao Kwan-yu (蕭貫譽) said this was because the young party had joined the elections only recently, and most of the candidates were political novices.
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