Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the Democratic Progressive Party won re-election yesterday, defeating a challenge by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) and three independents.
However, no official tallies were available from the Central Election Committee as of press time last night.
Cheng’s success in securing a second term did not surprise political observers, as he had maintained a solid lead over Chen in pre-election opinion polls.
However, he had also faced strong competition from former KMT legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環), who ran as an independent candidate after failing to win the KMT’s nomination, as well as Chu Mei-hsueh (朱梅雪) and Wu Fu-tung (吳富彤).
In the Nov. 29, 2014, nine-in-one elections Cheng beat then-Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) of the KMT with 51 percent of the vote to become the city’s first mayor after it was elevated to a special municipality the following month.
Voters in Taoyuan, as in other cities across the nation, waited in long lines to cast their votes.
One man, surnamed Lee (李), said he voted for Cheng because he thought a controversial underground railway project would be postponed if Taoyuan had a new mayor, adding that the project had been delayed too long.
Even though construction of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line did not begin during Cheng’s term, Lee said the system runs normally, which has been a great help to real-estate development in the Cingpu (青埔) Urban Planning Zone.
“I handle housing loans at a bank. We have seen a lot of investment from real-estate developers,” Lee said. “We have businesses coming in, and that was our hope.”
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