Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday won the Taipei legislative by-election, while Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) declared victory in the Taichung legislative by-election.
A total of nine candidates competed in the two by-elections held to fill two seats vacated after the local elections in November last year.
Ho beat the KMT’s Chen Ping-fu (陳炳甫) and independents Chen Su-yu (陳思宇), Chen Yuan-chi (陳源奇) and Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱) for the seat representing the city’s second electoral district, left vacant by the DPP’s Pasuya Yao (姚文智), who gave up his seat as a legislator to run, unsuccessfully, for Taipei mayor.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
There were 266,907 eligible voters in the electoral district, official data showed.
Ho received 38,591 votes, followed by Chen, who garnered 31,532 votes.
Voter turnout was 30.39 percent.
In Taichung, Shen beat the DPP’s Wang Yi-chuan (王義川), independent Chiu Yu-shan (邱于珊) and the United Party’s Lin Chung-sheng (林忠勝) for the seat representing the city’s fifth electoral district, which was vacated by the KMT’s Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who was elected Taichung mayor in November last year.
There were 337,848 registered voters in the electoral district, official data showed.
Shen received 49,230 votes, followed by Wang’s 32,903 votes. Voter turnout was 25.34 percent.
Four more by-elections are to be held on March 16: in Tainan’s second electoral district, in Changhua County’s first electoral district, in New Taipei City’s third electoral district and in Kinmen County.
Voters in Tainan are to pick a successor to former DPP legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), who was elected Tainan mayor in the local elections.
They would also elect replacements for former KMT legislator Wang Hui-mei (王惠美), who was elected Changhua county commissioner, and former KMT legislator Andy Yang (楊鎮浯), who won the race for Kinmen County chief.
The legislative by-election in New Taipei City is to pick a successor to former DPP legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), who was stripped of his seat after the Supreme Court last month sentenced him to four years and six months in jail and deprived him of his civil rights for four years for corruption.
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