Taiwan Gears Up for Elections

The tone has never been so aggressive as during this pre-parliamentary election campaign, which will be rapidly superseded by the race for the presidency. In their campaigns, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Kuomintang are focusing on very different issues.

"The opposition is focusing on the economy," explained Professor Zhu Xianlong, a political scientist from Macau. "Taiwan’s economy has been losing its momentum under the current government. After years of being the number one Asian Tiger, Taiwan is now limping behind."

"There is also the issue of corruption. The president’s family and the ruling party face a lot of corruption charges. Whereas, the DPP is focusing on political themes, as always, particularly on independence from the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan’s identity. It has also discovered another pre-election theme -- the Kuomintang’s party funding."

Kuomintang rule

In 1949, the nationalist Kuomintang fled from mainland China to Taiwan after being defeated by the Communists in the civil war. The party ruled the island for almost half a century, most of the time with an iron hand.

The Kuomintang only lifted martial law in 1987, and started steering the island towards democracy. But in 2000, the party lost power to the DPP, which had developed from several civil rights groups. But the Kuomintang kept the funds that it had accumulated -- partly illegally.

A referendum is taking place alongside the legislative elections in which the Taiwanese will be asked to decide on whether the Kuomintang’s funds should be returned to the people. Critics say that this is a contentious attempt on the part of the government to get more citizens to vote, and to thus weaken its political opposition.

According to the polls, the Kuomintang has a considerable lead and could even gain a landslide victory because of growing voter dissatisfaction with the ruling party.

Polarisation

"[…] There is a polarisation between those who consider Taiwan’s identity as the most important issue, and others who tend to worry about pragmatic aspects and are more interested in not widening the polarisation, which has become very apparent since the last presidential elections," explained Hermann Halbeisen, a Taiwan expert at the University of Cologne in Germany.

"And of course there is also the question of living standards. Taiwan’s low income classes, particularly those who live in the south of the island, are not doing very well financially and this will, of course, steer their vote in the opposite direction."

The American financial crisis and the unclear global economic situation could further afflict Taiwan’s economy, which is largely dependent on exports.

"The Beijing effect"

To distract from the issue of the volatile economy, the government has focused more on the matter of polarisation and is also secretly hoping to be helped by "the Beijing effect".

The DPP’s struggle for independence has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side and Beijing's threats to use violence to secure the province, which it sees as being separatist, brought the DPP more support among the population.

"In 2004, mainland China strongly intervened in Taiwan’s elections, by criticising every action taken by the DPP," said Professor Zhu Xianlong.

"After that, Beijing realised that the degree of the DPP’s success was proportionate to the intensity of its criticism. After the 2004 presidential elections, Beijing reconsidered its strategy on Taiwan. This time, Beijing has been reserved and calculating in the run-up to the legislative and presidential elections. The Chinese government has become more mature in that respect."

17 million people are eligible to vote in the elections on Saturday. Voters will cast two ballots -- one for a candidate in their district, one for the party of their choice.

Taiwan's new president will then be elected in March.