Apart from Kaohsiung, Taipei, New Taipei and Taichung are the contests to watch for signs of KMT life.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/23
By: Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文)
Credit: Reuters / TPG
In the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was devastated in successive overwhelming waves of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) landslide victories. In 2014, they lost all but one of the key “big six” metropolises and most of the nation’s counties, and in 2016 they were decimated in the national Legislative Yuan and lost the presidency by a large margin. The devastation was so complete the party was left without a single politician with national popularity with the general public, and very few popular with the KMT base.
At the beginning of this election cycle the KMT remained largely demoralized. They had some bright spots in some locally popular politicians who might eventually evolve into nationally recognized figures, but overall the party looked most likely to make modest gains with some morale-boosting wins in key battlegrounds on the back of dissatisfaction with the DPP administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and certain local issues.
That may have changed with the arrival of the so-called “Han wave” of KMT Kaohsiung mayoral challenger Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜). The Kaohsiung race is really the one to watch, and is covered in detail in the sister article to this piece, which you can read here.
This article will also focus on the three other most hotly contested races. Though Tainan isn’t covered, there is an outside chance the three-way race could produce an upset, though it would be a long shot. Taoyuan is considered to be safe for the DPP in this cycle under a highly popular incumbent facing a lackluster KMT challenger.
[FULL STORY]
