Kaohsiung voters solidly behind Chen

Shrugging off the specter of war after recent threats from Beijing, voters in Kaohsiung City thumbed their noses at China by offering solid support for the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in yesterday's election showdown.

Nearly 400,000 residents, or 46 percent of the city's eligible voters, threw their weight behind Chen in a city that is widely regarded as a bastion of DPP support.

The margin of victory surprised even DPP campaign officials who were stunned to see their candidate pull so far ahead of the two other leading candidates, James Soong (宋楚瑜) who garnered 30 percent of the ballots and the KMT's Lien Chan (連戰) who secured only 24 percent.

"Even under pressure from China, people maintained their dignity by supporting Chen," said Hsu Jen-tu (許仁圖), a campaign official in Kaohsiung.

For enthusiastic crowds of Chen supporters in Kaohsiung, the good cheer yesterday resembled the atmosphere during Chinese New Year.

The streets were jammed with motorcycles carrying Chen banners, and people set off strings of firecrackers while shouting dong suan (get elected, 當選) in Taiwanese.

Supporters crammed the area in front of Chen's local campaign office downtown to attend victory rallies held by local DPP officials. They waved campaign flags, danced and shouted "President Chen."

A KTV parlor owned by a local political critic, who has been an avid opposition supporter for decades, offered customers a 50 percent discount to celebrate Chen's election triumph.

At the local campaign office for the KMT's Lien, staff members were hard pressed to hide their disappointment.

Chen Tien-mao (陳田錨), a key campaign official and the former spokesman of the Kaohsiung City Council, left the headquarters without comment after learning of Lien Chan's defeat.

As in most parts of the country, Lien gained fewer ballots in Kaohsiung than James Soong did.

"We believe that the `dump Lien, save Soong' (棄連保宋) slogan had a strong impact on the election around the country, Kaohsiung City included," said Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), a campaign official and a KMT Kaohsiung city councilor.

A breakdown of the results showed that Soong gained the support of retired soldiers and their families in the city's Tsuoying (左營) borough.

Lo told the Taipei Times that Soong, the former governor of the Taiwan Provincial Government, lacked any political connections in the city that may have pointed to a strong level of support for him.

Looking ahead, Lo speculated that the political environment in Kaohsiung City would be very complicated because KMT and nonparty councilors are still dominant.

"Cross-party cooperation by DPP officials and councilors from other camps will be the only way to work," Lo said, adding that some clues to this cooperation were already evident in the support Chen enjoyed among nonparty councilors during the campaign.

The DPP's election victory yesterday can be partly attributed to supporters in seven counties in southern Taiwan, a region many local residents have said had been neglected by the KMT for decades.