The Republic
Date: 11/10/18 6:12 AM

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The candidates vying to become the mayor of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, faced off in a televised debate on Saturday, two weeks before a host of local elections seen as a barometer of the ruling party’s popularity.

The Nov. 24 mayoral election is one of hundreds being held in Taiwan for local government posts that are seen as a test of confidence in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which swept to power in 2016 with the election of President Tsai Ing-wen and a solid majority in parliament.

The DPP’s main opposition is the Nationalist Party, which relocated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949 and governed Taiwan for decades, first under martial law, then under full democracy beginning in the 1990s. The presidency has since alternated between the two parties, with the Nationalists, also known as the KMT, seen as more pro-China, and the DPP backing formal independence for Taiwan.

In Saturday’s debate, incumbent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, an independent, asked voters to continue supporting him, but the ruling party’s candidate, Pasuya Yao, said Ko has failed to make any changes in Taipei in the past four years.    [FULL  STORY]