Taiwan to Hold Free Vote for Legislature

Taiwan’s voters will choose a democratically elected legislature today for the first time since the late 1940s, when the Nationalist government fled to the island from the Chinese mainland.

Several former political prisoners who now are leaders of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party will probably win seats in the new 161-member Legislative Yuan. Shih Ming-teh, 51, an advocate of “Taiwan independence” who for many years was Taiwan’s most famous political prisoner, is among those likely to win. In his campaign speeches, Shih noted that he “lived 25 years on Green Island,” an infamous prison island.

Despite losing a civil war to the Communists on the mainland in 1949, the Nationalist government in Taipei has claimed to be the legitimate ruler of all China. On this premise, it froze into place institutions and legislators brought over from the mainland and denied democratic self-rule to the people of Taiwan for more than four decades.

Advocacy of self-rule in Taiwan, or declaration of an independent republic of Taiwan, was viewed until recently as illegal sedition.

The Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) maintained a grip on power that could not be challenged, either through the constitutional structure transplanted from the mainland or because of the government’s imposition of martial law, which remained in effect until 1987. Since then, the island’s political structure has undergone a steady process of democratization.

Continued Nationalist Party control of the legislature is not in doubt in today’s elections. But results will affect the balance of power among different Nationalist factions, as well as providing a measure of opposition strength.

Of 161 seats at stake, 125 will be filled by direct election in voting districts and 36 others will be assigned to overseas Chinese and nominees of political parties, in proportion to the number of votes each party receives. The Nationalists are fielding 125 candidates; the Democratic Progressives, the main opposition, are running only 59.

The consensus in Taipei is that the Democratic Progressives could receive up to 30% of the vote, their best showing yet in any island-wide election. In voting a year ago for the National Assembly, a body with power to amend the constitution and elect the president, the opposition won 24% of the vote, to 71% for the Nationalists.

The Democratic Progressives draw much of their strength from Taiwan-born voters who believe Nationalist Party policy--that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it--will lead to Beijing’s dominating the island. The Democratic Progressives have also been the main force pushing for democratization of the island’s political structure.

In this campaign, the Democratic Progressives have generally downplayed advocacy of Taiwan independence, focusing instead on issues such as demands for improved social services.

The Nationalists are split between an increasingly powerful Taiwanese faction, which includes President Lee Teng-hui, and a more conservative faction, made up primarily of people born on the mainland. The Taiwanese faction of the Nationalist Party is expected to be the largest single grouping in the new legislature.

Beijing has been watching the campaign with some alarm, concerned that events may develop in the direction of an eventual attempt to establish a permanently independent Taiwan.