With fears of Beijing’s influence growing, a slowing economy and a series of food safety scandals, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is facing a rough ride in the nation’s biggest-ever local elections — seen as a barometer for the 2016 presidential elections.
Campaigning is well under way, with almost 20,000 candidates contesting a record 11,130 seats. From mayors to county chiefs, city councilors and village leaders, the elections on Saturday could see new appointees at every level of local government.
Campaign tactics have ranged from traditional street rallies to bizarre efforts to garner attention.
.jpg)
Photo: CNA
The KMT’s Greater Tainan mayoral candidate Huang Hsiu-shuang (黃秀霜) cast herself as a “dark horse” against her more popular Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent — Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) — by riding a black horse down the city’s streets.
Meanwhile, independent Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chou Ko-sheng (周可盛) stripped to his underpants on stage as he drew his candidate number, shouting: “Naked to meet you, honesty is the best policy.”
It was, perhaps, an offbeat nod to the allegations of vote buying that have dogged election campaigns in some areas. Government figures say more than 2,400 people are being investigated, both candidates and supporters, mostly in rural locations. Two suspects were detained on Friday last week accused of bribing college students in a county council election.
.jpg)
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“The public feels apathetic over the vote, so candidates are resorting to publicity grabbing tactics, rather than focusing on critical issues,” a KMT official said, who did not want to be named.
The vote comes at the end of a turbulent year which saw the legislature occupied in March by the Sunflower movement following President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) handling of the cross-strait services trade agreement.
Ties with Beijing have warmed since the KMT came to power in 2008, with trade booming and millions of Chinese tourists visiting the nation each year.
However, the improved relationship has led to anxiety that the nation is too reliant on China.
More than 12 million people are eligible to vote in the five special municipalities and Taoyuan County, which is due to become the sixth special municipality on Dec. 25, out of the nation’s total population of 23 million.
Stagnant incomes and soaring housing prices are a major source of complaint among voters, particularly for younger generations. The KMT is also under fire over a string of food safety scandals, the latest of which prompted the resignation of the minister of health and welfare after more than 1,000 restaurants, bakeries and food plants were found to have used adulterated cooking oil.
“The KMT has even seen their support from the military, teachers and government employees — who have long been stalwarts of the party — shaken after cuts to their pensions and benefits,” National Chengchi University social science professor Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said.
Currently, the KMT is dominant in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Greater Taichung, while Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung are traditionally DPP strongholds.
“I believe lots of young people would prefer to vote for the DPP, who have more reformist ideals,” Shih Yen-ting, a graduate student who participated in the Sunflower movement, told reporters.
A long-time KMT supporter, Claudia Wu, said she would abstain to reflect her disillusionment.
“I’m not going to vote this time as I was really disappointed in the poor performance of the government,” said Wu, who works for a construction company in Taipei. “Food safety is the most basic demand from the people. The government has to fill the people’s stomachs.”
The DPP has said the local elections are an important prelude to 2016 presidential elections, calling on supporters to cast a “no-confidence” vote.
The KMT-sponsored think tank the National Policy Foundation also emphasized the significance of Saturday’s local elections.
“If the results substantially change the present political landscape, they could impact the 2016 presidential vote,” it said in a research paper, “and even influence Taiwan’s political ecology in the next 10 years.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS