The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a legislative majority in yesterday’s election, securing 68 seats in the 113-seat legislature. With its ally the New Power Party (NPP) winning five legislative seats, the DPP is expected to enjoy unrestricted power in the parliament.
Before the elections, the DPP had called on voters to cast their legislative ballots for the party’s candidates to help it secure a majority in the legislature without the NPP’s assistance.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which held 64 legislative seats before the election, hoped to secure at least 38 seats to prevent the majority party or alliance to motion for a recall of the president, which can be done with a two-thirds majority in the legislature. The DPP got what it wanted, but not the KMT.
Graphic: Louise Ting, Taipei Times
DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “coattail effect” has helped the party sweep legislative votes.
However, the real force that carried the opposition parties to victory is probably the “awakened youth,” who have been calling for the removal of the KMT from government since 2014’s Sunflower movement.
The NPP, which was established in the movement’s wake, fielded three political novices in the election — a leading activist in the Sunflower movement, a famous metal singer and a victim-turned symbol of nationwide demonstrations against abuse in the military — as its regional legislative candidates. All three got elected, defeating three veteran KMT lawmakers.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
However, while the NPP has won representation in the legislature as expected, the 5 percent threshold has proved to be a hurdle for other small parties, such as the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, the Republican Party and the Faith and Hope League, which are among parties that were established following the Sunflower movement.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union, which had three seats in the 2012 legislature, failed to cross the 5 percent threshold this time. The rise of the NPP was definitely a factor, but its decision to team up with Le Flanc Radical, a Taiwan-independence group consisting of young people, has been considered a move that came too late to garner young votes.
The People First Party’s (PFP) crossing the threshold might be seen as a coattail effect of its party chairman and presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜). It was said that Soong’s bid, which was his third, was a ploy to campaign for party votes. It remains to be seen how the PFP would retain its so-called “non-blue, non-green and middle way” in a pan-green parliament.
The New Party, which received tacit support from Deputy Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) of the KMT and other KMT members who were dissatisfied with the party’s at-large legislative candidate list, made gains, winning more than 4 percent of party votes, while having only won 1.49 percent of the votes in 2012.
With the KMT’s rout, the distribution of the political power within the KMT and the pan-blue camp as a whole would be followed closely.
An interesting point raised by commentators is how the forced apology of Korean pop music group member Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) affected young voters and the elections’ outcome. It has been said that many young people decided to vote after the incident, in defiance of pressure from China. The DPP’s victory, in terms of its gains in party votes compared with what was expected, is said to be an outcome of the incident.
The KMT had secured 64 seats in a 113-seat legislature in 2012, while the DPP had 40 seats, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the PFP each had 3, the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union had 2 and independents, 4.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of