Taiwan Opposition Candidates Make Strong Showings in Races

Opposition candidates made strong showings in races for local government and legislative positions Saturday in voting that marked a major milestone in Taiwan’s gradual transition toward a democratic political system.

In the most important race of the election, opposition Democratic Progressive Party legislator You Ching, 47, narrowly defeated the ruling Nationalist Party’s Lee Shi-kun for the post of chief executive officer of Taipei county. You, who has a reputation as one of the opposition’s toughest and most talented leaders, is now in a position to carry on a high-profile political battle with the Nationalist government on a wide range of local issues such as environmental degradation.

“You Ching will be able to harass the government right under its nose,” said Tsai Shih-yuan, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Progressive Party, in comments before the election on what an opposition victory in the Taipei county magistrate race would mean.

“This is the biggest victory in 100 years,” You declared exultantly to a crowd of about 5,000 cheering supporters outside his headquarters early today.

“He supports democracy,” said Lin Yu-mao, a college student and supporter of You. “We want American-style democracy. We want political reform.”

Despite significant gains for the opposition, the ruling Nationalists maintained their dominance of Taiwan’s politics in the voting, the first since the lifting in 1987 of four decades of martial law. In 21 key races for county magistrates and big city mayors, preliminary returns showed the Nationalists with 56% of the vote and the Democratic Progressive Party with 35%.

The election was marred by allegations of bribery and vote-rigging. Opposition-led protests against alleged irregularities broke out in Tainan, Nantou and Taichung. In Nantou, a crowd of protesters confronted riot police, and in Tainan, angry Democratic Progressive Party supporters smashed furniture at a vote-counting center.

The opposition, competing legally in an election as an organized party for the first time in 40 years, won six of the 21 races for county magistrates and mayors of big cities. Until Saturday, the Democratic Progressive Party controlled only one of these key local positions, with independents holding three and the Nationalists the other 17.

Also at stake were 101 seats in the national legislature, the Legislative Yuan, 77 provincial assembly seats, 51 seats for Taipei City Council members and 43 seats for the Kaohsiung City Council.

Democratic Progressive Party candidates won 21 legislative seats, up from a previous total of 12. Candidates of the main opposition party also took 15 provincial assembly seats, 14 Taipei City Council seats and eight Kaohsiung City Council seats.

“There’s no question that there’s been considerable progress toward a more democratic and open system here,” Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), head of a group of American congressmen visiting Taiwan to observe the election, told reporters shortly after the close of balloting. “Whether it’s gone far enough is another question. . . .There is of course . . . a lot more that needs to be done before genuine democracy can be considered to exist here. I certainly feel that what we witnessed today is a step forward.”

Control of Taiwan’s national legislature was never at stake in Saturday’s election because that 256-member body is dominated by elderly legislators who last faced election on the Chinese mainland in 1947.

Ever since the Nationalists lost a civil war to the Communists and fled to Taiwan in 1949, they have continued to claim to be the rightful rulers of all China.

This situation has been used to justify a system by which most legislators and members of the National Assembly, which elects the president, have continued in office for more than 40 years, on the grounds that elections cannot be held in the Communist-controlled districts they represent.