The three-way tussle for votes in the Hualien County commissioner by-election has demonstrated the rise of party politics at the expense of local factions. Or has it?
Of the three main candidates -- the DPP's You Ying-lung (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Although Wu, a former KMT member, was a candidate in the race to represent the pan-blue camp in the election, the KMT and PFP insisted on Hsieh, a former chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs.
Hsieh is a native of Hualien but has never cultivated a local power base. The same can be said for You, who has spent most of his time recently in Taipei.
But Wu, a former Hualien County commissioner who was expelled by the KMT last month for running his own maverick campaign, has been cultivating relations with locals for decades.
To make up for their lack of a local power base, both Hsieh and You have relied mostly on political stars from Taipei.
A string of political luminaries -- including President Chen Shui-bian (
Pan-blue heavyweights such as KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"Often, support from local factions and relations with locals cultivated over a long period are what count when it comes to local elections," said Wu Tsai-hsun (
"But the whole electoral situation this time around is too murky to predict who will emerge victorious from the race, or to tell how effective local factions have been compared to big-name politicians coming to Hualien to stump for their candidates," Wu Tsai-hsun said.
Although he lacks the resources available to party-backed candidates, Wu has shown a remarkable ability in mobilizing his supporters.
The demonstration of support for Wu on the streets of Hualien means that You and Hsieh have been unable to discount Wu in their campaign strategies, despite Wu's poor showing in opinion polls.
A victory for Wu would indicate once again that all politics is local.
Indeed, the Wu camp, in response to Hsieh's appeal to "dump Wu and save Hsieh," has come up with the slogan "dump Taipei [Hsieh] and save Hualien [Wu]."
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