The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) yesterday won the Taipei County commissioner seat with a decisive victory over Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The Central Election Commission's statistics showed that Chou garnered 988,739 votes, or nearly 55 percent of the total ballots. Luo's ballot-count stood at 798,233 votes, or more than 44 percent of the total.
Chou, a former People First Party (PFP) member, switched allegiance to the KMT in April this year to become the KMT's flag-bearer for the county.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Unfazed by a bad loans scandal, Chou won with the backing of united pan-blue camp and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Chou said his victory is a boon to democracy as well as ethnic harmony. He pledged to stamp out corruption and to promote a merger between Taipei County and Taipei City.
Luo extended his congratulations to Chou in his concession speech last night. He said Chou had fought an honorable battle and called on his supporters to respect the election result.
Police authorities had deployed more than 400 officers at Chou and Lou's headquarters yesterday to prevent possible conflicts.
Many of Luo's supporters expressed their disappointment at his campaign headquarters in Banciao last night. One man even tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the stomach, but was stopped by bystanders.
Observers said the controversial vote-buying allegations that Chou launched against Luo two days before the elections -- involving Luo allegedly paying people to participate in his campaign rally last Sunday -- were a turning point that swayed swing voters yesterday.
However, adding to the controversy of Chou's victory, it came to light yesterday that his allegations could be a total fabrication.
Taipei County was considered the most important and hotly contested of the 23 races, given its population of 3.7 million -- easily the biggest county in the country -- and its location adjacent to the capital.
The DPP governed Taipei County for the past 16 years, even though pan-blue supporters account for nearly 55 percent of the county's eligible voters.
The DPP was in the past able to best the KMT candidates by narrow margins because of disunity within the pan-blue camp. This time, however, Chou won thanks to a unified pan-blue support base.
Ma saw the Taipei County race as a test of his popularity ahead of the 2008 presidential poll.
Chou's victory can be seen as a confirmation of Ma's growing popular support since he took the helm as KMT chairman in July.
Many believed the KMT's victory was due to Ma's vowing to quit as KMT chairman if the party did not win more than half of the 21 races in which the KMT fielded a candidate. The strategy worked to turn the election into a battle to safeguard Ma, who is seen as the pan-blues' only hope for ousting the DPP in the next presidential poll.
Although DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) vowed on Friday that he would resign if Luo lost, it is unlikely that DPP supporters will blame him for the party's poor performance, political analyst Liao Da-chi (廖達琪) of National Chungshan University said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS