The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) needs fundamental reforms, including readjusting its China policies, following its defeat in Saturday’s Kaohsiung mayoral by-election, two academics said on Sunday.
Although the KMT in March launched a round of reforms under the leadership of KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) following its defeat in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections, there has been little substantial change to the party, said Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁), a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies.
“The KMT needs a bottom-up revolution,” Kuo said.
Yu Ching-hsin (游清鑫), a research fellow at National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center, said that a change of leadership in the KMT would not be enough to reform the century-old party.
The party needs to rebuild its cross-strait policy rhetoric and come up with a new strategy to deal with the trilateral relations between Taiwan, China and the US, while solidifying its core supporters, Yu added.
The academics’ comments came a day after Kaohsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁) of the KMT lost the by-election to former vice premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the Democratic Progressive Party by a large margin.
Chen was the favorite to win the race and garnered 671,804 votes, or 70.03 percent of the total, topping Lee and Kaohsiung City Councilor Wu Yi-jheng (吳益政) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who won 25.90 percent and 4.06 percent of the vote respectively.
The by-election was held after a recall vote on June 6 removed then-Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT from office.
Han was elected in November 2018, ending the DPP’s 20-year hold on the city.
Chen is to serve out the remainder of Han’s term, which ends in December 2022.
Kuo said that Wu taking just 4 percent of the vote showed that the campaign strategy of the TPP, founded by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), did not work well.
The TPP has no stars other than Ko himself, Kuo said.
The “one-man party” would face a major crisis in its development, especially after Ko’s terms as mayor ends in 2022, he added.
However, the DPP is not without its own challenges, Yu said.
The DPP needs to come up with a strategy to maintain its popularity in the post-COVID-19 era, and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) needs to find ways to continue to exercise her influence instead of becoming a “lame duck” in her second term, Yu added.
Looking to the 2022 local elections, Kuo said that the DPP is facing challenges as well, especially in Taoyuan and Hsinchu City, which are governed by the party.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) and Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) are to leave office in 2022 after serving the maximum two terms, but the DPP has not come up with any potential qualified successors to run for the posts in either city, which have long been considered KMT strongholds, he said.
The KMT, which governs Yunlin and Changhua counties, would face similar challenges in those counties, which were DPP strongholds for decades, once Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) and Changhua County Commissioner Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) complete their first four-year terms, given the KMT’s defeat on Saturday, Kuo said.
In related news, the Central Election Commission is to officially announce Chen’s election and issue a certificate on Friday.
Chen is scheduled to take office within 10 days of the announcement, meaning that he could assume his official duties before the end of this month.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Yang Ming-jou (楊明州) has been serving as acting mayor since June 13.
He was appointed by the Executive Yuan on June 12 after the Central Election Commission officially confirmed Han’s recall.
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