The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday won an absolute majority in the 113-seat legislature for the first time, with 60 percent of its regional legislative candidates winning in their respective electoral districts and securing more than 44 percent of the vote.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has lost the 64-seat majority it won in 2012, retaining 35 seats in the legislature.
The newly formed New Power Party (NPP) had spectacular success, winning all three districts where it fielded regional legislative candidates and crossing the 5-percentage-point threshold to be awarded legislator-at-large seats.
Graphic: Constance Chou and June Hsu, Taipei Times
The most attention-grabbing legislators-elect are the NPP’s Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Freddy Lim (林昶佐), as well as the DPP’s Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Hualien County, who had all been predicted to have tough battles in traditional KMT strongholds.
The DPP achieved a home run in the cities and counties south of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) — Yunlin and Chiayi counties, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung City — winning a total of 21 seats.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was defeated in Keelung by the DPP’s Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應).
Graphic: Constance Chou, Taipei Times
In New Taipei City, which has 12 electoral districts and where KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) serves as mayor, the KMT lost eight seats that it formerly held, with only two lawmakers — Luo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Lin Te-fu (林德福) — retaining their seats.
The DPP won seven more seats than it had four years ago, securing nine seats, while the NPP secured one.
Huang, one of the leading Sunflower movement activists, defeated incumbent KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), who had been elected seven times in a row, in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止).
Photo: CNA
KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), whose “30-second ramming through” of the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 helped spark the Sunflower movement and who was seeking his fourth term, lost his seat to the DPP’s Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌).
In Taoyuan, where the KMT had won all six electoral districts in 2012, the DPP gained three seats, while the KMT retained two and an independent won one.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) snatched a seat in Hsinchu City, which had belonged to the KMT.
In Hsinchu County, former commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金), a non-affiliated candidate supported by the DPP, was defeated by KMT legislative candidate Lin Wei-chou (林為洲).
The KMT managed to retain two seats each in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
In Taichung, the KMT won three out of eight districts — dropping from five in 2012 — while the DPP won four, with Hung winning the final seat.
In Changhua County’s four electoral districts, the DPP gained three seats, while the KMT won one, a reversal of what the two parties won in the county four years ago.
In eastern Taiwan, both electoral districts in Hualien and Taitung counties saw their respective DPP candidates elected.
The outlying islands — Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu — elected DPP, KMT and KMT lawmakers respectively.
The DPP, KMT, People First Party (PFP) and NPP were the only four parties to cross the 5-percentage-point threshold for legislator-at-large seats.
A total of 18 candidates on the DPP’s legislator-at-large candidate list secured seats with the party’s 44 percent of party representation vote.
The KMT received 11 seats through 26.9 percent of party votes.
The PFP, with 6.5 percent of party votes, won 3 seats, while the NPP garnered 6.1 percent for 2 seats.
NO CONNECTION: Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said the CECC has linked no deaths so far to the AstraZeneca vaccine Eleven people in the nation have died after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, but the deaths should not deter older people with chronic health conditions from getting vaccinated. Nine of the deaths — people aged 65 to 97 — took place three hours to one day after the AstraZeneca vaccine was given, the center said, while eight of the 11 deaths were people aged 75 or older, most of whom had chronic health conditions. On Wednesday, the center said that 12 more people — seven women and five men aged 42 to 97 at
HELPING HAND: Vaccine eligibility can likely be widened to cover pregnant women now that the nation has more vaccine doses than it planned for, Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan yesterday received a shipment of 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the US, obtaining its largest single batch of vaccines since the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year. A cargo plane of Taiwanese national carrier China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) carrying the Moderna Inc vaccines landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 4:30pm, after leaving Memphis, Tennessee, early on Saturday, US time. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen were at the airport to welcome the plane. The vaccines were transported to a cold chain logistics center, where they would be inspected
‘NO STRINGS ATTACHED’: The US is donating the shots without any political or economic conditions, and with the singular aim of saving lives, a senior US official said The US was yesterday to ship 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan, a senior US administration official told Reuters, more than tripling Washington’s previous allocation of shots for the nation. Washington, competing with Beijing to deepen geopolitical clout through so-called “vaccine diplomacy,” had initially promised to donate 750,000 doses to Taiwan, but is increasing that number as US President Joe Biden’s administration advances its pledge to send 80 million US-made shots around the world. The 2.5 million donated doses of the Moderna Inc vaccine would leave Memphis, Tennessee, on a flight belonging to Taiwan’s national carrier, China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), early
VULNERABLE: The CECC has been moving older infected people or those with underlying health conditions, who were in isolation, to hospitals for better health monitoring The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 75 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, the lowest daily count since the nationwide level 3 alert was issued last month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the 75 local infections are 35 males and 40 females, aged from under five to over 80, and they began experiencing symptoms between June 8 and Sunday. New Taipei City reported 38 cases, followed by Taipei with 22, Taoyuan with five, Miaoli County with three, Keelung and Taichung with two each, and Kaohsiung, Yunlin County and Changhua County with one each, CECC
RSS