Voter turnout in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairmanship by-election on Sunday was only 17.59 percent.
Although Vice President William Lai (賴清德) was unopposed, he nevertheless held many public assemblies in counties and cities across Taiwan during the short campaign period to hear the opinions of party members concerning its vast losses in the local elections on Nov. 26 last year.
By listening to members’ dissatisfaction and their ideas for party reform, and demonstrating a determination to act when needed, Lai proposed improvements to party operations and discussed how it can do better. He vowed to revive the spirit and the discipline of the DPP to win back the trust of Taiwanese.
This does not mean carrying out these plans would be plain sailing.
First, DPP membership at its peak exceeded 500,000, but has dropped to about 230,000.
Second, the 17.59 percent turnout rate is lower than the 19.73 percent that voted in the 2005 DPP leadership election, in which the candidate was also unopposed.
Third, in Tainan, the area Lai originally represented, voter turnout was below the national average at 15.52 percent.
As the DPP chairman, if Lai wants to boost party morale, he must introduce drastic reforms that produce immediate results so that party members and swing voters feel that the DPP has genuinely recovered its original values of being untainted, hardworking and patriotic.
Only then might the party find itself victorious in the presidential and legislative elections next year.
Wang Chou-ming is director of the Anti-Bribery Research Office.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which