No party won a majority of legislative seats in yesterday’s elections, with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) taking 51 seats and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) taking 52 seats.
During the campaign, the DPP vowed to secure more than half of the Legislative Yuan’s 113 seats, while Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that his party aimed to grab at least 10 seats. Neither met their goals.
None of the TPP’s candidates won seats in regional legislative elections.
The DPP won all eight of Kaohsiung’s districts, as well as the six districts in Tainan.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) — who joined the DPP last year and was nominated for Kaohsiung’s sixth electoral district after DPP Legislator Chao Tian-lin (趙天麟) dropped out of the race due to an extramarital affair — upset KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Mei-ya (陳美雅).
In Taipei’s fourth electoral district (Nangang-Neihu), DPP Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), who in the previous legislative elections became the first DPP candidate to snatch a victory from the KMT in the district, failed to retain her seat, losing to KMT challenger Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀).
Photo: CNA
Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) — who secured the KMT’s nomination in Taipei’s seventh electoral district (Xinyi-Southern Songshan), stopping incumbent KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) from running for a sixth consecutive time — beat DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華).
DPP Legislator Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) pulled off a surprise victory in 2020, but failed to keep her seat in New Taipei City’s 12th electoral district, losing to New Taipei City Councilor Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) of the KMT.
KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) reclaimed her seat in Nantou County’s first electoral district for the fifth consecutive time, despite being accused of leaking confidential files concerning the Indigenous Defense Submarine program and illegally occupying public land. She beat Nantou County Councilor Tsai Ming-hsuan (蔡銘軒) of the DPP.
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
Taitung incumbent DPP Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪), who ran as an independent after losing the party primary to Lai Kun-cheng (賴坤成), lost to KMT challenger Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓).
Former KMT legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恆) — accused by his opponent, DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), of corruption and dishonest property declarations — won in Taichung’s second electoral district.
TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ru’s (蔡壁如), running in Taichung’s first electoral district, was touted as an exemplary case of KMT-TPP cooperation, gathering support from KMT heavyweights such as Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕). Tsai lost to Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) of the DPP.
Photo: CNA
The KMT’s Sean Liao (廖偉翔), another candidate endorsed by both the KMT and TPP, beat incumbent DPP Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) to win Taichung’s first electoral district.
Among the 16 parties that submitted legislator-at-large candidate lists, only three — the DPP, the KMT and the TPP — crossed the 5-percentage-point threshold to be awarded seats in the legislature.
A total of 13 candidates on the DPP’s legislator-at-large candidate list secured seats with the party’s 36.16 percent of party votes.
The KMT received 13 seats through 34.58 percent of party votes, while the TPP won eight seats with 22.07 percent of party votes.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying