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ELECTIONS RESULTS SIGNAL POWER SHIFT: ANALYSTS

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-04 19:56:47
By Flor Wang CNA staff writer

    Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) The outcome of Saturday's "three-in-one" elections signaled a major power shift between the ruling and opposition camps, which is expected to have a significant influence on the 2007 legislative elections and the 2008 presidential race, political observers said Sunday.

    The main opposition Kuomintang's (KMT's) strong performance over the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the local government elections preludes a KMT return in future elections in view of the noticeable expansion in its voter base in northern and central Taiwan, according to the analysts.

    On the other hand, the DPP is set to undergo a power restructuring and party line adjustments in order to solidify its voter base, they predicted, adding that coming elections will pose severe challenges to the party now that the KMT will be able to allocate much greater resources in local governments.

    The KMT seized 14 out of 23 city mayor and county magistrate posts in Saturday's elections, up from 9 in the previous elections in 2001. The DPP only managed to win six of the posts, and all of these are in southern Taiwan. The KMT also won a majority of the city and county councilor and village and township chief contests.

    Further fueling its morale, the KMT also took Taipei county -- Taiwan's most populous administrative area -- as well as Ilan county and Chiayi city, which have long been DPP strongholds.

    The KMT's landslide victory will also further cement the leadership role of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou in the opposition "pan blue alliance" and boost his chances of winning the presidency in 2008, Wang Lee-yeh, a professor of political science at Tunghai University said, noting that Ma will face no other challengers from within the "pan blue alliance" in his quest to become Taiwan's next head of state.

    Hsu Yung-ming, an Academia Sinica assistant researcher, opined that the DPP will be unable to turn the tide in its favor if it fails to implement sweeping reforms in the coming years ahead of the 2008 presidential race.

    With the DPP's power base having contracted to southern Taiwan, a power struggle within the party is inevitable, keeping heavy pressure on party heavyweights vying for the presidency, he said.

    Sheng Chih-jen, a political science professor at Soochow University, contended that the DPP must undergo serious soul-searching and thorough self-examination to regain the public's faith, which has been seriously shaken by a series of corruption scandals involving high-ranking officials in President Chen Shui-bian's administration.

    The big question for the DPP at present is how the party can convince the people that Chen will promote clean politics and stay clean himself, he said.

ENDITEM/Li