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TAIPEI, Dec 1: Taiwan’s Nationalist Party was swept from its last bastion of power on Saturday in a landslide defeat in parliamentary elections at the hands of the Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian and other groups.
The result is certain to alarm Beijing, which will see it emboldening the DPP to move Taiwan further towards independence.
The DPP won 87 seats, up from 66, replacing the Nationalists as the largest party in the 225-seat legislature.
The People First Party, led by former Nationalist rebel James Soong, also scored impressive gains, more than doubling its number of seats to 46 from 20.
And the fledgling Taiwan Solidarity Union, created by former president Lee Teng-hui who was purged by the Nationalists, won 13 seats, up from one.
With no party gaining an outright majority, political horse-trading is likely to follow, with Chen seeking a coalition government to tackle the island’s worst ever recession, record unemployment and to mend fences with China.
Parliament was the final redoubt of the Nationalists after they lost the presidency to Chen last year, having governed Taiwan for half a century since fleeing China in 1949.
The official count showed the DPP won 3.45 million votes, or 36.57 per cent of the popular vote, while the Nationalists collected 2.95 million votes, or 31.28 per cent.
CHEN SEEKS COOPERATION: The outcome strengthens Chen’s hand to break up an obstructive Nationalist-led alliance that controls the current parliament and which tried to dismiss him last year for scrapping plans to build the island’s fourth nuclear power plant.
Chen renewed an offer for political reconciliation with opposition parties.
“The end of elections is the beginning of cooperation,” Chen said in a statement.
“During campaigning, there may be competition among parties or individuals, but the stability, security and prosperity of the country are the common language of the 23 million people and their common hope,” Chen said.
It was a resounding defeat for the Nationalists, who had predicted they would win 90 parliamentary seats.
Nationalist Party chairman Lien Chan called his party’s performance “not very ideal”.
In a consolation, the Nationalists won nine mayoral seats, up from eight four years ago. The DPP settled for nine, down from 12 in 1997.
NEW PARTY FLOPS: The tiny New Party, which advocates unification with a democratic China, turned in a miserable showing, capturing one seat, down from eight in the outgoing chamber.
The elections were hotly contested with a record number of candidates running. One Nationalist candidate lost by about 50 votes.
China has been muted during the elections after menacing the island with war games and threats in the past two presidential elections.
China views self-governing Taiwan as a rebel-held province and has threatened to attack if the island declares independence or drags its feet on unification talks.—Reuters
