Acting Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday won the party’s chairmanship by-election, defeating his opponent Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) by a landslide.
The by-election took place yesterday from 9am to 4pm through an online voting, and Huang’s win was announced at 4:15pm.
Huang won 8,903 votes, or 96.11 percent of the total, while Tsai garnered 360 ballots, or 3.89 percent.
Photo: CNA
The voter turnout was 47.95 percent, or 9,263 people out of the 19,320 who were eligible to vote, the party headquarters said.
Following his huge win, Huang would serve as leader of Taiwan’s second-largest opposition party until Dec. 31 next year, when the second four-year term of his predecessor, former party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), was slated to end.
Ko resigned earlier last month, as he is still being held in detention as part of an ongoing investigation into the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment corruption case.
Expressing gratitude to party members for their support, Huang promised to work hard.
Amid competition from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Huang said he would lead the growth of the TPP to meet the expectations of Taiwanese for a grassroots political party.
He urged all TPP members to unite and help make Ko proud.
The party was founded by Ko in 2019. He at the time said the party aimed to change Taiwan’s political culture, as the ideological battle between the two major parties left the nation in a rut and led to friction over the past two decades.
Huang, a legal academic, rose to prominence through civic activism, including his participation in the 2014 Sunflower movement.
Huang later joined the New Power Party and became its first executive chairman in 2015. The following year, he was elected to the legislature.
In 2020, Huang did not seek re-election as a legislator, and started to advocate for whistle-blower protection laws. Ko in 2023 invited Huang to join the TPP, and the following year, Huang became a TPP legislator-at-large.
Before Ko resigned as TPP chairman, he endorsed Huang, giving Huang a boost within the mainstream faction of the party.
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