On 29 November, the dust settled on elections for county and city mayors in Taiwan Province. The opposition DPP gained a sweeping victory, winning power in 12 counties and cities. The ruling KMT won only eight seats, and for the first time ever was behind the DPP in total votes polled, by 1%.

With the planned streamlining of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the newly elected mayors will inevitably have greater power and responsibility. During the election campaign, the public extracted all kinds of promises from the candidates. Now they will be watching to see if they are kept.

Election fever began even before candidate registration started on 26 October. Factions fought fiercely for all the parties' nominations; once these were made, each of the major parties unveiled its campaign strategy and hunkered down for the electoral battle.

"Taiwan Hope"

What attracted most attention was how the two leading parties, the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party, mobilized their star political figures. The DPP's "Taiwan Hope Campaign Group," led by Taipei City mayor Chen Shui-bian, carried the message of the "Taipei experience" throughout Taiwan. Wherever Chen's bandwagon went he was f皻ed, and his presence raised the political stock of many official DPP candidates whose prospects had not been rated highly. For instance, Chang Tsan-hung in Tainan City was dragging behind Hsu Tian-tsai, who left the DPP to stand as an independent. But "Ah-Bian's" vigorous support turned the situation around.

The KMT's strenuous attempts to deflate Chen's campaign was indicative of their fear of the DPP superstar. KMT secretary-general Wu Po-hsiung repeatedly criticized the Taipei City Government for staging street dancing events but not organizing celebrations or putting up flags for National Day. After several attacks on Kaohsiung City mayor Wu Tun-yi, Wu joined the ranks of those knocking Chen, sparking a north-south war of words. In Taipei itself, the running battle between the city government and city assembly also intensified.

Chen Shui-bian energetically fielded this growing barrage of direct attacks, only falling silent during a brief period following an accident at a mass tug-of-war event in Taipei, in which a rope broke and injured 53 people, two suffering severed arms. During the final pre-election fortnight Chen brought together his former teacher Professor Li Hung-hsi of NTU's law department and his prot嶲* Lo Wen-chia in a campaign to "pass down the democratic flame," which again caused a stir islandwide. Chen has certainly lived up to the epithet "political superstar."

Monkey business

The KMT also mobilized its political heavyweights, including Taiwan Provincial Governor James Soong, who enlivened election rallies all over Taiwan by wielding a puppet of the Monkey King given to him by puppet master Huang Hai-tai. The "KMT Central Committee Election Speaking Group," composed mainly of Executive Yuan ministers, put up an extraordinary showing. For instance, Premier Vincent Siew, who was elected in his native Chiayi with a large majority in the last Legislative Yuan elections, lent his support to KMT Chiayi City candidate Chiang Yi-hsiung, who touted Siew as "the first ever premier from Chiayi."

Star speakers were a big attraction at campaign rallies, and President Lee Teng-hui was naturally the trump card in the KMT's hand. If candidates' campaign pledges could be backed up with a presidential promise, they carried far more weight. But a promise Lee made about old-age pensions while canvassing for Hsieh Shen-shan in Taipei County caused a rumpus.

The call for pensions was the main thrust of the DPP's campaign four years ago and attracted many votes, but financial problems have made many DPP mayors renege on this pledge. But this time it was the KMT's promises which revived the topic.

Row over pensions

The "pensions" Lee was referring to are senior citizens' welfare benefits, payable to anyone over the prescribed age. But the pension scheme the Executive Yuan has been planning for years is a contributory system in which entitlement depends on money paid in while still working. Lee's election trail words caused an immediate debate in the KMT. Vice-President Lien Chan said the concepts of welfare payments and pensions must not be confused. Finance minister Chiu Cheng-hsiung admitted that allocating funds would be difficult. James Soong feared a costly welfare-type scheme would starve funding for other projects. Council for Economic Planning and Development chairman Chiang Ping-kun said the CEPD was speeding up planning for the contributory system, for introduction as soon as possible.

Following these internal ructions, President Lee said pensions would only be paid by those cities and counties that could afford them. But the DPP would not let the issue rest there: it said the KMT had reversed its position and adopted DPP policy, and to test the KMT's sincerity, it tabled a Legislative Yuan motion to give a second reading to a DPP-sponsored pensions bill. But the bill narrowly failed to get through, and the controversy died down again for the time being.

Family squabbles

Another reason for interest being focused on Taipei County was that well-known figures from both the KMT and the New Party were standing as independents against the official candidates. The KMT's Hsieh Shen-shan was challenged by Lin Chih-chia, while NP nominee Yang Tai-shun faced a threat from party veteran Chou Chuan. No-one had resigned from the DPP specifically to contest the seat, but ex-DPP member and former Hsichih mayor Liao Hsueh-kuang looked certain to split the DPP vote.

Contests as complex as Taipei County's occurred in many other localities too. In Tainan City seven candidates ran, including two KMT nominees and a DPP resignee. Sometimes such situations arose due to irreconcilable differences during nomination ballots, but elsewhere it was because the tradition of local factions taking turns to field candidates broke down, so they all decided to stand. All parties faced problems of fragmentation.

Those who broke party ranks to stand for election were accompanied by even more who did so to canvass for them. Veteran DPP leader Peng Ming-min's "Nation-Founding Society Campaign Group" (in favor of an independent Taiwanese state) appeared at many rallies for unofficial DPP candidates, and even shocked people by lambasting DPP party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang for allegedly "selling out Taiwan to the enemy" in contacts with PRC officials years ago. NP legislator Hsieh Chi-ta not only supported female NP rebel Chou Chuan, she also openly backed former Department of Health secretary-general Chang Po-ya, an independent. Such a complex fabric of party indiscipline left those voters with strong party loyalties rather at a loss who to vote for. The idea of voting for individuals rather than parties was much touted during the campaign.

Stolen thunder

Despite the political dogfights, media interest in the election campaign was muted. The candidates' thunder was stolen by the two remaining fugitives in the Pai Hsiao-yen kidnapping and murder case, who went on a crime spree. But the breakdown in law and order was also reflected in the views put forward by candidates. The DPP canvassed all-out for women's votes, and fielded three female candidates. It also pushed policies on women's issues, childcare, education, geriatric care and pensions, including the ideas of a 24-hour women's rescue service and increased police patrols.

The DPP came up with a "Spice Girls Campaign Group" aimed at the younger generation, and the KMT responded with a "Hip Guys Campaign Group." Now that Taiwan has over 1.4 million Internet users, cyberspace is also contested territory; almost every candidate had a website. As media channels diversify, future campaigns will increasingly target specific segments of the electorate, using commercial marketing techniques to package candidates as "products."

The topic of reunification versus independence, which was such a high-decibel component of previous campaigns, seems to have faded somewhat this time around. On the one hand it seems that the stances of both the KMT and the DPP on this issue are becoming less clearly distinct from each other, and on the other the present situation vis-*-vis the mainland makes it no longer seem appropriate to shout too loudly on one side of the argument or the other.

In the final count, the DPP renewed their six existing mandates in Ilan, Taipei, Hsinchu, Taoyuan, Tainan and Kaohsiung Counties, and gained a further six, including Keelung, Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan Cities and Pingtung County; the KMT held only six cities and counties on Taiwan itself, plus outlying Kinmen and Matsu. Thus over 70% of the population will now have DPP mayors.

Apart from the superstar effect and candidates' own image, the DPP made good strategic use of such themes as Taiwanese independence and living standards. Meanwhile the KMT suffered heavily from an image tarnished by its handling of such problems as corruption, law and order, accidents and natural disasters.

Although as a whole these elections were hard fought, most candidates relied more on personality, prestigious support and sometimes extravagant promises than on well-defined policies.

The election result is sure to bring calls for a coalition cabinet, and presages fierce battles in the next legislative and presidential ballots. However, the divisions apparent within all the parties suggest that the shape of the future political landscape is far from certain. Most importantly, the electorate have shown they can vote with their eyes wide open, and victory in future contests will depend showing real commitment to, and competence in, improving local conditions.

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Provincial Governor James Soong, who was compared to the mischievous Monkey King of Chinese legend, has been stumping for Kuomintang candidates-and getting a great crowd reaction-by appearing with a puppet that he was given as a gift. (courtesy of Hung Sheng-fei)