Jump to content

1997–98 Taiwanese local elections

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1997–98 Taiwanese local elections

← 1994 29 November 1997 (1997-11-29)
5 December 1998 (1998-12-05)
2001–02 →

All 25 mayors/magistrates of special municipalities, cities, counties
  First party Second party
 
Leader Lin Yi-hsiung Lee Teng-hui
Party DPP Kuomintang
Leader since 18 July 1998 27 January 1988
Mayors/
Magistrates
13 9
Change Increase6 Decrease7

Local elections of Taiwan were held in 1997 and 1998 to elect magistrates of counties and mayors of cities on 29 November 1997, and mayors and councillors of special municipalities on 5 December 1998.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won in the 1997 election, controlling majority of mayors/magistrates across the country and winning more popular votes than the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) for the first time.[1] While the two polls were seen as confidence votes of President Lee Teng-hui, they marked the beginning of the historic peaceful transition of power which would occur in 2000.

Counties and cities

[edit]
Election results for counties and cities

During the election rally, President Lee endorsed Kuomintang candidate Kente Chen in Taoyuan magisterial election. Lee, who is also chairman of the Kuomintang, claimed he has been a registered voter in Taoyuan for years instead of Taipei. It was later rebuked by Chen Shui-bian, mayor of Taipei, that he was still registered as Taipei resident. Chen further slammed Lee as "senile" for not knowing his residence, suggesting Lee should get an elderly chain so not to get lost. Kuomintang seniors in response denounced Chen's comments.

The DPP successfully flipped in six counties/cities, including Keelung City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Taichung County, Tainan City, and Pingtung County, but defeated in Penghu County.[2] Incumbent magistrate of Miaoli County from the KMT was defeated by independent candidate.

Turnout of the election is 65.92%, with 7,784,908 voting out of 11,809,277 registered electorates.

Magistrate of Taipei
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Su Tseng-chang 571,658 40.67%
Kuomintang Hsieh Shen-shan 543,516 38.67%
Independent Lin Chih-chia 154,590 11.00%
Independent 廖學廣 70,619 5.02%
New 楊泰順 32,902 2.34%
Independent Stella Chou 32,373 2.30%
Mayor of Keelung City
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Lee Chin-yung 73,398 42.75%
Kuomintang Liu Wen-hsiung 65,176 37.97%
Independent Hsu Tsai-li 33,099 19.28%
Magistrate of Yilan County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Liu Shou-cheng 122,114 53.83%
Kuomintang Liao Feng-teh 104,744 46.17%
Magistrate of Taoyuan County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Annette Lu 375,500 56.20%
Kuomintang Kente Chen 286,993 42.96%
Social Reform Party 徐運德 5,619 0.84%
Magistrate of Hsinchu County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Lin Kuang-hua 70,879 36.12%
Kuomintang Cheng Yung-chin 64,551 32.89%
Independent Chiu Ching-chun 59,393 30.26%
Independent 徐能安 1,424 0.73%
Mayor of Hsinchu City
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP James Tsai 81,328 56.11%
Kuomintang 林志成 62,017 42.79%
Independent 王少泉 1,593 1.10%
Magistrate of Miaoli County
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Fu Hsueh-peng 153,528 54.80%
Kuomintang 何智輝 99,109 35.37%
New 黃達業 15,871 5.66%
DPP 徐進榮 11,678 4.17%
Magistrate of Taichung County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Liao Yung-lai 223,222 37.60%
Kuomintang Kuo Jung-cheng 173,667 29.26%
Kuomintang Shyu Jong-shyong 144,427 24.33%
Independent Liu Chuan-chung 35,533 5.99%
Independent 陳欽隆 10,804 1.82%
Independence 錢文南 5,950 1.00%
Mayor of Taichung City
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Chang Wen-ying 179,461 49.57%
Kuomintang 洪昭男 149,438 41.28%
New 宋艾克 26,515 7.32%
Independence 鄭邦鎮 6,622 1.83%
Magistrate of Changhua County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang 阮剛猛 290,335 49.56%
DPP Wong Chin-chu 285,058 48.66%
Independent 張榮昌 10,443 1.78%
Magistrate of Nantou County
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Peng Pai-hsien 78,690 31.61%
DPP Lin Tsung-nan 76,689 30.80%
Kuomintang 許惠祐 74,966 30.11%
New Chen Cheng-sheng 18,066 7.26%
Independent 吳清江 559 0.22%
Magistrate of Yunlin County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang 蘇文雄 125,376 34.93%
Independent 張榮味 122,166 34.04%
DPP 廖大林 104,499 29.11%
Independent 歐明憲 6,882 1.92%
Magistrate of Chiayi County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang 李雅景 136,161 53.26%
DPP 何嘉榮 119,499 46.74%
Mayor of Chiayi City
Party Candidate Votes %
Independent Chang Po-ya 58,544 50.23%
Kuomintang 江義雄 49,551 42.52%
DPP 蔡鴻章 6,350 5.45%
Independence 臧汀生 2,103 1.80%
Magistrate of Tainan County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Mark Chen 328,641 65.73%
Kuomintang 洪玉欽 171,357 34.27%
Mayor of Tainan City
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP George Chang 116,145 35.75%
Kuomintang 林南生 68,124 20.97%
Independent Hsu Tain-tsair 64,228 19.77%
Kuomintang 陳榮盛 57,854 17.81%
Independent 林壽宏 9,097 2.80%
New 高家俊 4,737 1.46%
Independent 方金海 4,699 1.45%
Magistrate of Kaohsiung County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Yu Cheng-hsien 271,989 51.74%
Kuomintang 黃鴻都 234,960 44.69%
Independent 鄭德耀 10,575 2.01%
Independent 林景元 8,201 1.56%
Magistrate of Pingtung County
Party Candidate Votes %
DPP Su Jia-chyuan 227,506 55.42%
Kuomintang Tseng Yung-chuan 170,154 41.45%
Independent 李景雯 12,867 3.13%
Magistrate of Taitung County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang Chen Chien-nien 48,365 47.64%
Independent Hsu Ching-yuan 47,340 46.63%
DPP Huang Chao-hui 5,818 5.73%
Magistrate of Hualian County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang Wang Ching-feng 72,456 56.76%
DPP 游盈隆 55,194 43.24%
Magistrate of Penghu County
Party Candidate Votes %
Kuomintang Lai Feng-wei 20,946 57.53%
DPP 許丕龍 15,194 42.47%

Special municipalities

[edit]
Election results for special municipalities

Elections for mayors and councillors of special municipalities Taipei and Kaohsiung were held on 5 December 1998. The nail-biting election resulted in both incumbents defeated with a narrow margin, including an unexpected victory for the DPP in Kaohsiung.

Taipei

[edit]
Taipei mayoral election result by districts
  Districts led by Ma Ying-jeou
  Districts led by Chen Shui-bian

Chen Shui-bian of the DPP seek a second four-year term with a high popularity of 80%, while the KMT nominated Ma Ying-jeou, ex-Minister of Justice who earlier declined to run in the mayoral election. Ma eventually beat Chen by around 0.6% of votes. Analysts believed tactical voting by supporters of New Party contributed to the KMT's win,[3] in addition to the discontent with Chen's aggressive policies.

1998 Taipei mayoral election
CandidatePartyVotes%
Ma Ying-jeouKuomintang766,37751.13
Chen Shui-bianDemocratic Progressive Party688,07245.91
Wang Chien-shienNew Party44,4522.97
Total1,498,901100.00
Valid votes1,498,90199.16
Invalid/blank votes12,7340.84
Total votes1,511,635100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,868,86080.89
1998 Taipei City Council election
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Kuomintang589,90740.0823+3
Democratic Progressive Party455,61330.9619+4
New Party273,19518.569-2
New Nation Alliance27,2821.850
Green Party Taiwan22,2741.510
Taiwan Independence Party9,6330.650
Chinese Woman's Party9230.060
Independents92,9666.321-5
Total1,471,793100.0052
Valid votes1,471,79397.61
Invalid/blank votes36,0512.39
Total votes1,507,844100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,864,31480.88

Kaohsiung

[edit]
Kaohsiung mayoral election result by districts
  Districts led by Wu Den-yih
  Districts led by Frank Hsieh

Following the defeat in vice-presidential election, Frank Hsieh of the DPP started considering running in Kaohsiung mayoral election. In 1997, Chen Che-nan, Hsieh's party colleague decided not to run against Hsieh in the party primary for the Kaohsiung poll, reportedly after an intervention by Taipei Mayor Chen who later promoted him as secretary-general of Taipei Government.[4]

On the other hand, incumbent Wu Den-yih from the KMT faced small-scale rebellion from local party branch after former Kaohsiung mayor Wang Yu-yun criticised Wu for being ungrateful.[5] In the run-up of the election, an ex-secretary of Wu published a recording tape, claiming Wu had an affairs with a reporter. Despite found to be fake after the election, the incident nevertheless damaged Wu's popularity.

During the campaign, Wu attacked Hsieh for "inhumane" after he agreed to be defence attorney for the murderer of Pai Hsiao-yen, hoping to persuade his surrender. The personal attack was said to have further pushed for Hsieh's victory.[4]

1998 Kaohsiung mayoral election
CandidatePartyVotes%
Frank HsiehDemocratic Progressive Party387,79748.71
Wu Den-yihKuomintang383,23248.13
Cheng Te-yaoIndependent18,6992.35
Wu Chien-kuoNew Party6,4570.81
Total796,185100.00
Valid votes796,18598.54
Invalid/blank votes11,8111.46
Total votes807,996100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,004,87280.41
1998 Kaohsiung City Council election
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Kuomintang357,16345.1825+2
Democratic Progressive Party211,95426.819-2
New Party30,3633.841-1
Taiwan Independence Party14,7071.860
Independents176,30822.309+1
Total790,495100.0044
Valid votes790,49598.02
Invalid/blank votes15,9961.98
Total votes806,491100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,002,48080.45

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "1997年縣市長選舉觀察──變遷中的地方政治". 台灣獨立建國聯盟. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  2. ^ "近5屆縣市長黨籍". UDN. Archived from the original on 2010-11-14.
  3. ^ 小笠原欣幸 (2021). 臺灣總統選舉--臺灣認同的成長與爭奪. 大家出版. pp. 152–155. ISBN 978-986-5562-10-6.
  4. ^ a b 郭, 瓊俐 (October 2005). 《打鐵街少年——謝長廷的生命故事》 (in Chinese (Taiwan)) (First ed.). Taipei: 布克文化出版. ISBN 986-81139-7-0.
  5. ^ "王玉雲批吳敦義過河拆橋". CTS News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 1998-07-01. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-14.