Ma finishes strong, but shy of million mark

As expected, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won his second term by a landslide, polling over 384,000 ballots more than his sole challenger, the DPP's Lee Ying-yuan (李應元).

With a majority victory across the city's 12 districts, Ma also made inroads into traditional DPP strongholds. But he failed to garner 1 million votes as his aides had hoped -- a goal they thought would make Ma a star in the nation's political scene.

The Lee campaign, though unable to surpass the party's showing four years ago, may still find comfort in putting up a performance on a par with the party's nationwide support.

With high approval ratings, Ma opted to depoliticize the race and built his campaign around his administration, though critics say there are few things he can take pride in.

"By playing down partisan rivalry, we hope to demonstrate that a candidate can win elections without engaging in bitter verbal assaults or other negative campaign tactics," said Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), Ma's spokesman and a college professor.

Ma himself has compared the mayoral race to a running match where he and Lee should be treated as two competitors, instead of political foes.

Dubbed a model politician, he refused to respond to criticisms leveled by the rival camp.

The soft strategy succeeded in arousing public sympathy as 64 percent of the capital's electorate voted for his re-election, up from 51 percent in 1998.

With all ballots counted, Ma and Lee amassed 873,102 and 488,811 votes, respectively.

Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), DPP lawmaker and Lee's deputy campaign manager, conceded the electoral climate favored the incumbent as it dampened voters' passion for policy debate.

"By dodging our questions over his administrative flaws, Ma skillfully hid his weaknesses from the voters, and our campaign suffered from a lack of focus throughout," Cho said.

While regretting Lee's sound defeat, the ruling party took solace in his ability to poll nearly 36 percent of the votes.

"Lee did not fare as miserable as some have forecast," DPP lawmaker and Lee's chief campaign manager Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) said. "At least he managed to consolidate the party's core voter base. Also, the Ma camp failed to gain 1 million ballots as it had boasted."

The turnout proved lower than four years ago when the mayoral election was held in conjunction with legislative polls.

Some 70 percent of the 1.94 million eligible voters turned out for the election, down from 80.89 percent in 1998.

Higher turnout is believed to benefit the Ma camp, as KMT supporters are seen as less likely to bother to cast votes.

Emile Sheng (盛治仁), a political scientist at Soochow University, linked the relatively low turnout to political fatigue.

"Though the media put great emphasis on the mayoral elections, many people do not think they are that important," he said. "It is bread and butter that average citizens care about the most."

Experts agreed that the sluggish economy harmed the Lee campaign, fair or not.

Ping Lu (平路), a social critic and columnist, said it is difficult for candidates from the ruling party to put up a fierce campaign when the economy is hurting.

"Though a challenger, Lee to a large extent played the role of defender, for voters will definitely link his performance to that of the central government," she said.

Against this backdrop, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), dubbed the super vote-getter, failed to significantly boost support for his handpicked candidate.