The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) yesterday narrowly beat the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) by 1,925 votes to win a Nantou County legislative by-election.
Tsai won 45,218 votes, or 49.44 percent of the total, while Lin garnered 43,293, or 47.34 percent, election officials said.
During the afternoon, as local polling stations started reporting ballot counts, Lin was trailing by about 2,000 votes.
Photo courtesy of Tsai Pei-hui’s campaign office via CNA
“This is a demonstration of Taiwan’s democratic spirit,” Tsai said in Nantou City after Lin conceded at about 5:30pm.
She promised to start her work as legislator tomorrow, adding that in addition to the policies she proposed in the campaign, she would also seek to implement some policies proposed by Lin.
“One by one, I will work hard to implement these programs, including improving social welfare for the elderly, while pushing for funding for more large hospitals, attracting more industry and building science parks for our county,” she said.
Vice President William Lai (賴清德), who is chairman of the DPP, said Tsai’s victory has given the party a much needed boost, after three consecutive defeats since last year’s nine-in-one local elections.
“This is a crucial turning point for the DPP to start a winning streak against the KMT,” he said of the party’s first electoral victory since he became chairman.
“It will end the string of defeats so our party can consolidate support with the aim of winning the upcoming elections,” he said in a statement.
KMT county commissioners and legislators have dominated Nantou politics for most of the past 20 years. The last DPP member to win in the county was Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男), who was county commissioner from 2001 to 2005, preceded by DPP commissioner Peng Pai-hsien (彭百顯), who served from 1997 to 2001.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also congratulated Tsai Pei-hui, who was a legislator-at-large from 2016 to 2020.
“Tsai Pei-hui will return to the legislature, and she will strive diligently to work for Nantou County, and bring the values of our party to provide better care and look after the people,” Tsai Ing-wen said in a statement.
“Winning this election is only the start of the hard work ahead... When people rally together, we can overcome difficulties and tough challenges, and strive forward to progress on the road ahead,” she said.
Lin called the election unfair, saying that Tsai Pei-hui had more resources than he did, adding that he had been “running out of weapons and ammunition” toward the end.
“So we lost by just more than 1,000 votes — a very small margin. We did not put in enough effort in this race, although we had the chance to win... Also I was tarnished by media reports, and was tainted by a smear campaign, that is why in the end I lost narrowly,” Lin said.
Also on the ballot were independent candidate Chen Tsung-chien (陳聰鑑), former mayor of Mingjian Township, and Lu Yu-chun (魯昱君), a retired school counselor and former military political affairs officer. They received 2,528 and 421 votes respectively.
The turnout was 46.35 percent of the 198,412 total eligible voters, considered high for the district, the Central Election Commission said.
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