A LONG TURNAROUND:
The weekend’s by-elections were a setback for King Pu-tsung,
whom analysts say has failed to improve the party’s
electoral campaigns
By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Mar 01, 2010, Page 3
The Chinese
Nationalist Party’s (KMT) defeat in Saturday’s legislative
by-elections could have a domino effect and the party could
suffer yet another setback in the special municipality
elections at the end of the year if it fails to integrate
local factions and present better policies, political
observers said.
The KMT secured only
one of the four legislative seats in Saturday’s by-election,
winning Hualien County but losing Taoyuan, Hsinchu and
Chiayi to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). This
marked the second electoral defeat for the KMT this year
after it lost all three contested seats in another
legislative by-election in January.
National Dong Hwa
University professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒)
said the power struggle between local factions was a major
factor in the KMT’s
defeats, adding that KMT
Secretary-General
King Pu-tsung’s
(金溥聰)
party reform plans appeared to have failed to win the
support of pan-blue voters.
In a post-election
press conference on Saturday, King said the party had lost
the by-elections in Taoyuan and Hsinchu — both pan-blue
strongholds — because of intra-party splits.
For the Taoyuan
race, the KMT nominated former commissioner of the Taoyuan
County Department of Cultural Affairs Apollo Chen (陳學聖),
who had failed to top polls within the party. Former Taoyuan
County councilor Wu Yu-tung (吳餘東)
and Jhongli Deputy Mayor Lin Hsiang-mei (林香美)
later withdrew from the KMT to join the by-election,
splitting the pan-blue vote and contributing to Chen’s
defeat.
Even though the KMT
secured Hualien, it fought hard to suppress the faction led
by Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁),
who gave his full endorsement to independent candidate Shih
Sheng-lang (施勝郎).
King said the party refused to make compromises with
certain local factions and would press ahead with party
reform and nominate candidates with integrity regardless of
the electoral outcome. The KMT’s
nomination strategy, however, sent mixed messages, said Lo
Chih-cheng (羅致政),
a political scientist at Soochow University.
The KMT fielded a
candidate like Wang Ting-sheng (王廷升),
a university professor who narrowly beat the DPP’s
Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴)
in Hualien, but it compromised with local factions that
supported former Hsinchu County commissioner Cheng Yung-chin
(鄭永金)
and nominated his brother Cheng Yung-tang (鄭永堂)
in Hsinchu, Lo said.
While President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九),
in his capacity as KMT chairman, visited the county many
times and King sought Hsinchu County Commissioner Chiu
Ching-chun’s
(邱鏡淳)
support for Cheng Yung-tang, this did not prevent a defeat
in Hsinchu.
Wang Yeh-li (王業立),
a professor at National Taiwan University (NTU), said local
factions were an issue within the KMT.
“The
KMT’s battle against local factions prompted some pan-blue
supporters to turn their back on the party. It could create
a domino effect and the party could very well lose the five
special municipality elections,” he said.
Lin Huo-wang (林火旺),
also at NTU and who once served as senior advisor to
President Ma, saw things differently.“It
[the defeat] tells Ma that he should stop trying to woo
voters from the pan-green camp,” he said. “A political party
will not be able to hold its core support if it drifts
further away from its ideals.”
The KMT has suffered
a series of setbacks in elections since regaining power in
2008. Before losing the two legislative by-elections, it
also suffered defeats in the Miaoli and Yunlin legislative
by-elections, as well as the local government elections in
December.
The KMT has
struggled to “turn the game around,” Lo said, adding that
the momentum could cause a ripple effect that will undermine
its prospects in the five special municipality elections at
the end of the year, which are considered more important
than the two recent legislative by-elections.
“More
white-collar workers and middle-class people appear to be
supporting the opposition. [We should] bear in mind that
there are more such voters in the five special
municipalities,” Lo said.
Saturday’s
by-election was also a personal setback for King, who
accepted Ma’s invitation to serve as KMT secretary-general
in December. Ma appointed King to accelerate party reform
and organize election campaigns. The defeats in the two
by-elections are expected to exacerbate resentment among
party members who have challenged his abilities and disagree
with party reform.
Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華),
a political scientist at National Chengchi University, said
King failed to foster meaningful change within the KMT,
adding that the election campaigns he organized were no
better than prior to his appointment. The biggest factor
behind the KMT’s defeats, Ku said, was the lack of public
trust in the Ma administration.
The government did a
poor job explaining its policies, including its proposed
signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA)
with China, he said, adding that the KMT would suffer more
defeats in the special municipality elections and the
presidential election in 2012 if Ma repeated those mistakes
and failed to make policymaking process transparent.Ma
yesterday apologized to supporters and vowed to proceed with
party reform.