Elections yesterday to select a total of 314 city councilors in Taipei, Sinbei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung ended in a tie between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), with each winning 130 seats.
Non-partisan or independent candidates garnered 45 seats in the five city councils, while the pro-unification New Party won three seats — all in Taipei City — the People First Party (PFP), another pan-blue party, won four. The pan-green, pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) took two seats.
Overall, 2,642,846 ballots (35.34 percent) were cast for the DPP, while 2,889,210 (38.63 percent) were cast for the KMT.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The pan-green camp dominates the city council in Tainan, while the pan-blue camp controls the northern, central and southern city councils in Taipei, Sinbei City, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
Taipei City Council
For the Taipei City Council, the KMT remains the biggest party, while the pan-blue camp retains a majority, with 10 seats more than the pan-green camp.
GRAPHIC: TT
The KMT holds 31 of the 62 seats in Taipei City Council, while the DPP, which nominated 30 candidates, got 23 candidates elected. The New Party and PFP won three and two seats respectively, while the TSU took one seat. The final two seats in the Taipei City Council will be held by independents. The pan-green Constitution Promotion Union did not win any seats.
Green Party Taiwan convener Pan Han-sheng (潘翰聲), who ran as a candidate for Taipai’s Songshan (松山) and Xinyi (信義) districts, failed to win a seat, obtaining only 4,984 votes (2.15 percent). Green Party Taiwan stands for environmental protection and sustainability and is neither pan-green nor pan-blue.
Sinbei City Council
Of the 66 seats in the Sinbei City Council, the KMT was the biggest party with 30 seas, while the DPP came in second at 28. The rest of the eight seats were taken by independents.
Notably, city councilor candidate Chen Hung-yuan (陳鴻源) won a seat on the city council with 20,854 votes (16.65 percent), the third-highest of all eight candidates in his district, but the lowest among all KMT candidates there. Sean Lien (連勝文), former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) son, was shot at Chen’s rally on Friday night.
Taichung City Council
The KMT won a slight victory by taking 27 of the 63 seats in the -Taichung City Council, while the DPP took 24. The pan-blue camp holds only one more seat than the pan-green camp, while independents hold 10 seats.
Tainan City Council
The DPP won a large victory by taking 27 of the 57 Tainan City Council seats, while the KMT took 13. The other 17 seats were taken by independents.
Kaohsiung City CounciL
Of the 66 Kaohsiung City Council seats, the KMT won 29 while the DPP took 28. The pan-blue camp holds two more seats than the pan-greens, while independents occupy eight seats.
Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son, won 32,947 votes (16.84 percent). Winning the highest -number of votes in his district, Chen Chih-chung ran as an independent candidate in 10th electoral district of Cianjhen (前鎮) and Siaogang (小港), against four candidates nominated by the DPP, four from the KMT and six others.
Cheng Hsin-chu (鄭新助), who ran as an independent candidate in Kaohsiung as a supporter of former president Chen Shui-bian, won a seat on the council with 18,283 votes (9.66 percent).
Former KMT Kaohsiung City councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭), who ran as an independent candidate, won only 10,268 votes (6.87 percent), the lowest of eight candidates in his riding, which includes Cianjin (前金), Sinsing (新興) and Lingya (苓雅) districts. Huang’s election victory in 2006 was annulled because of his holding US citizenship during his term.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.