TAIPEI : Testing the Waters
On Saturday, voters in Taiwan go to the polls in what is expected to be another challenge to the 44-year rule of the Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party headed by President Lee Teng-hui. At stake are 23 county magistrate and mayoral positions on the island.
But the outcome will be viewed as a measure of public sentiment on the country’s most critical political issue--whether to seek an independent course, advocated by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), or continue the Nationalist campaign to overthrow Communist rule and reunify with the mainland.
Last December, in Taiwan’s first democratic legislative elections, the ruling Nationalist Party won 53% of the vote, compared to 31% for the DPP.
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