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Taiwan mayor polls seen as test for ruling party
2006-11-26
Mayoral elections in Taiwan's two biggest cities next month will provide a new, stern test for the island's beleaguered ruling party even though President Chen Shui-bian has survived three attempts in parliament to oust him. The indictments of Chen's wife and several presidential aides this month on corruption-related charges have battered the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's image, and DPP candidates are trailing in a leading TV network poll. The Nationalists, Taiwan's main opposition party, are leading DPP contenders in the capital and in the southern port city of Kaohsiung two weeks before the December 9 elections, surveys by the TVBS cable station found. "Will the presidential office flaps affect mayoral races in Taipei and Kaohsiung? I don't see how this can be avoided, given the media coverage of the Chen Shui-bian crisis," said Christopher Hughes, Asia Research Center director at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The two mayoral posts -- Kaohsiung is currently held by the anti-China, pro-working class DPP and Taipei by the more institutional, China-friendly Nationalists or Kuomintang (KMT) -- offer their parties valuable exposure to run candidates for president in 2008. China has considered Taiwan a breakaway province since 1949 when the KMT lost a civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists on the mainland and fled to the island. Beijing has threatened war if it embraces formal independence. Both the Taipei and Kaohsiung jobs can be a stepping stone to national power. President Chen was once Taipei mayor, while the incumbent in the capital, KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou, is likely to win his party's nomination for president the year after next. Ma faces his own controversy over irregularities in the use of a special mayoral fund. Earlier this month, he apologized for a "lack of supervision" but denied being personally involved in the case. He is not seeking re-election. Six candidates are running for mayor in Taipei, and five are vying for the top job in Kaohsiung, but analysts say minor-party candidates stand little chance, with both races basically a face-off between Nationalists and DPP. POPULIST THEMES DPP's contenders must sidestep the presidential office indictments, but KMT candidates must distance themselves from Ma's troubles. "According to the basic traditional culture of Taiwan, it's hard for voters to separate the image of the leaders from their parties," said Frank Hsieh, the DPP mayoral candidate in Taipei. "Normally people consider them two sides of the same thing." Hsieh, a former premier and one-time Kaohsiung mayor, is running against KMT-backed Hau Lung-bin, a former chairman of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration. While campaigning on populist themes -- Hau promises clean rivers and revitalization of old city areas and Hsieh dreams of Taipei hosting the 2020 Olympics -- the two opponents have also traded allegations of financial impropriety. Allegations of corruption are also flying in the Kaohsiung mayoral race, where the DPP's Chen Chu, former chairwoman of the Council of Labour Affairs, is questioning KMT candidate Huang Chun-ying's use of a special fund when he was deputy mayor. Huang counters that Chen let too many foreign workers into Taiwan when she was labor chief. Although Kaohsiung voters have historically backed the DPP, which was formed in south Taiwan 20 years ago as a clean and populist alternative to the then-monolithic KMT, many have lost their enthusiasm for the party, some political analysts say. Suspected employment irregularities which came to light following a riot by Thai migrant subway line workers in 2005 under Hsieh's premiership hit the DPP's reputation among its traditional supporters, said Marion Wang, professor at National Sun Yat-Sen University. But some observers say Taiwan voters, especially younger ones without strong party affiliations, will ignore politics in favor of pressing local issues. "Voters are really voting for their own personal interests like stable jobs and community safety, not ideological differences," said Steve Chen, director of the Conflict Study and Research Center at Chang Jung University in Tainan. Also on election day, voters will choose 52 city councillors in Taipei and 44 in Kaohsiung electorate.
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