Taiwan’s Ruling Party Escapes With Narrow Majority in Vote

The ruling Nationalist Party escaped with a narrow majority in parliamentary elections Saturday that were colored by bellicose rumblings from neighboring China.

The biggest gains in the vote to select 164 members of the Yuan, or Parliament, went to the upstart Chinese New Party, which won 21 seats. The New Party, formed in 1993 by rebel members of the Nationalist Party, urges a non-confrontational stance with mainland China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.

The independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party, which suffered the most from the mainland Chinese military pressure, fell far short of its goal of 60 seats. Nevertheless, the party increased its membership in the legislature from 50 to 54.

For the first time in the 10 years since democratic elections were introduced here, the Nationalist Party--known in Chinese as the Kuomintang, or KMT--failed to win a majority in the popular vote, falling to 49.9%.

“The KMT has fallen under 50%,” said Parris H. Chang, a leader of the Democratic Progressive Party. “The psychological impact of this is enormous.”

Rulers here for nearly five decades, the Nationalists saw their majority slip from 102 to 85 seats but avoided the outright defeat that opposition parties sought before the country’s first-ever presidential election in March, 1996.

James A. Robinson, a University of West Florida political science professor who has monitored elections here since 1986, summed it up: “Each party got something out of this election but still less than they hoped for.

“The KMT achieved its high priority of holding on to its majority in the legislature but at the same time lost its majority of popular votes. The Democratic Progressive Party increased its share of seats but not as much as it hoped for. The New Party tripled its share of seats but remains largely a regional-based party consisting of mostly second-generation mainlanders,” he said.

The narrow Nationalist victory probably enhanced the prospects of appointed Nationalist President Lee Teng-hui to become Taiwan’s first elected head of state.

Lee, a native-born Taiwanese, has a broad base of support that exceeds party lines. Most observers, including prominent members of the opposition parties, consider him a virtual shoo-in in the March vote.

“We didn’t need an overwhelming win in this election to support” Lee, said Nationalist government information director Jason C. Hu.

In one key race widely viewed as a weather vane of the parliamentary vote, Vincent Siew, a longtime Nationalist government minister and close ally of Lee’s, defeated popular incumbent Democratic Progressive Party member Chai Trong in the southern city of Chiai.

Even before the results of the elections were announced, officials in China condemned the vote and criticized Lee, who infuriated the Beijing leadership in June by making a private visit to the United States to attend a reunion at Cornell University in Upstate New York, where he attended graduate school.

In July, the Chinese began conducting a series of military maneuvers and missile tests off the coast of Taiwan. Military officials made it clear that they were seriously considering intervention against the island if Taiwan moved toward independence.

Despite his leadership in the Nationalist Party, which officially supports reunification with the mainland, some senior leaders in Beijing consider Lee a closet supporter of independence.

The People’s Daily, a Communist Party organ, said in a recent commentary, “No matter how loudly Lee Teng-hui shouts his so-called ‘democratic politics’ . . . more people see clearly that under his pretty clothes he is concealing the true colors of Taiwan independence.”