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ELECTIONS ANOTHER VICTORY FOR TAIWAN'S DEMOCRACY: VICE PRESIDENT

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-04 16:00:55

    Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) Vice President Annette Lu said Sunday that although the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered a major setback in the Dec. 3 local government elections, the polls as a whole represented another victory for Taiwan's democracy.

    Speaking during a colloquium hosted by the Democratic Pacific Union on Taiwan's elections and reforms, Lu said that she and President Chen Shui-bian are willing to take responsibility for the DPP's failure in Saturday's "three-in-one" elections, in which the ruling party garnered only 41.95 percent of the total votes while the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) won 50.96 percent.

    The DPP's winning only six of the local seats to the KMT's 14 was a major setback for the ruling party, but the entire election process -- with a higher-than-expected turnout of 66 percent and no violence -- was a triumph for Taiwan's democracy, Lu noted.

    Lu offered her congratulations to KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou for his party's sweeping victory and lauded him for his humble attitude in accepting victory. Upon winning Saturday's elections by a landslide, Ma told his party and KMT supporters that "we can celebrate for one evening, but that's all, as we must continue working to overcome the many challenges that still lie ahead."

    Lu also saluted DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang for his courage in immediately offering to step down from the DPP chairmanship to take full responsibility for the party's failure in the elections.

    The vice president said that although Su has offered to resign, DPP members can still consider whether they should accept the chairman's resignation.

    Lu repeated President Chen's recent remarks that the question of whether there will be a Cabinet reshuffle doesn't necessarily have to be related to the results of the Dec. 3 elections. She appealed to the DPP members and the country alike to "give the president some more time" to ponder the issue.

    Meanwhile, Lu stressed that failures can be transformed into strength leading to success. Citing the setback suffered by then Taipei City Mayor Chen Shui-bian in 1998 in his re-election bid as an example, Lu said that the 1998 failure was transformed into an invincible strength for Chen to win the 2000 presidential election.

    The vice president exhorted all DPP members and supporters to be confident in the party's strength in winning back its mandate in next year's mayoral elections in metropolitan Taipei and Kaohsiung.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/Li