Ruling Party Prevails in Taiwan’s Elections : Democratization: Voters support the status quo, rejecting any quick move toward a permanent break with China.

The ruling Nationalist Party won a solid victory in National Assembly elections Saturday as voters rejected any rapid move toward declaring permanent independence from China.

In the first general election since Chiang Kai-shek brought his government to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in 1949, the Nationalists won 71% of the popular vote compared with 24% for the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party. The Nationalist Party will hold nearly 80% of the seats in the new National Assembly, giving it power to adopt constitutional reforms without needing to make concessions to the opposition.

The election gives a boost to the ruling party’s liberal wing headed by Taiwan-born President Lee Teng-hui, who has instituted a program of gradual democratization aimed at easing political tensions while preserving the Nationalists’ grip on power.

The Democratic Progressive Party, which campaigned for creation of a “Republic of Taiwan” that would abandon the goal of eventual reunification with China, acknowledged disappointment with the results. Its leaders declared, however, that the election still brought important progress toward the opposition’s long-term goals.

The opposition succeeded in making the question of Taiwan’s long-term future, including the possibility of permanent independence from China, a topic of open debate. The Nationalist government still claims to be the legitimate ruler of all China and insists that someday, after communism collapses, Taiwan and the mainland should reunite.

Until a few years ago, residents of this island faced long prison terms for publicly advocating independence, and such speech is still technically illegal. The government has threatened to consider post-election legal action against candidates who advocated Taiwanese independence, but few observers expect any mainstream politicians to go to jail. The opposition on Saturday portrayed this expansion of free speech as a triumph.

“We have sown the seeds and we have tilled the land,” Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang said in a Saturday night interview. “This time we will not be able to get a harvest of this issue. But I’m expecting that we will get more in the next election.”

Hsu said that the overwhelming Nationalist victory came because of its superior financial resources, which he charged were used to buy votes and to control the major media, especially television broadcasting.

“I’m quite disappointed, but I don’t think it’s a real setback,” Hsu said. “I think this is the most corrupt election in Taiwan history. . . . I think it will backfire. All these factors--the monopoly of the mass media and the corruption of this election--will help us in the (legislative) election next year.”

The ruling party has rejected charges of vote-buying and other election irregularities and insists that there is nothing improper in the clear preference shown for it by major television stations.

“This is a victory for democracy,” Nationalist Prime Minister Hau Pei-tsun jubilantly told reporters Saturday night.

The Nationalists won 254 of the 325 National Assembly seats up for election Saturday, while the Democratic Progressive Party took 66 seats and nonpartisan candidates won five seats. The new assembly will also have 80 incumbent members elected in 1986, including 68 Nationalist Party members. The assembly’s main task will be to make constitutional revisions next year, which require 75% support for passage.

Winners in cities across the island celebrated with firecrackers and gong-beating convoys of trucks.

Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, has repeatedly threatened to invade the island if it declares independence.

It is a threat taken seriously here. Fear of Beijing contributed to the Nationalists’ victory.

“If we want Taiwan to be independent, we must get mainland China to recognize it first,” a middle-aged man named Li, who said he voted for a Nationalist candidate, commented as he left a Taipei polling center. “If mainland China doesn’t recognize it, it is very dangerous.”

BACKGROUND

The Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 after a defeat by Communists on the Chinese mainland. Chiang set up an authoritarian system that gave the Nationalists unchallengeable rule over the island. Decades of political repression followed, but the lifting of martial law in 1987 paved the way for some democratic reforms. The Nationalist government still claims to be the legitimate ruler of all China.