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. 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
The DPP successfully flipped seven counties and cities, Keelung City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Taichung County, Tainan City, Taoyuan County, and Pingtung County, but were defeated by the Kuomintang in Penghu County. In Nantou County, the Kuomintang was defeated by an independent candidate.
Turnout of the election is 65.92%, with 7,784,908 voting out of 11,809,277 registered electorates. +Magistrate of TaipeiPartyCandidateVotes% Su Tseng-chang571,65840.67% Hsieh Shen-shan543,51638.67% Lin Chih-chia154,59011.00% Liao Hsueh-kuang70,6195.02% Yang Tai-shun32,9022.34% Stella Chou32,3732.30%
+Mayor of Keelung CityPartyCandidateVotes% Lee Chin-yung73,39842.75% Liu Wen-hsiung65,17637.97% Hsu Tsai-li33,09919.28% +Magistrate of Yilan CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Liu Shou-cheng122,11453.83% Liao Feng-teh104,74446.17% +Magistrate of Taoyuan CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Annette Lu375,50056.20% Chen Ken-te286,99342.96%Social Reform PartyHsu Lien-te5,6190.84% +Magistrate of Hsinchu CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Lin Kuang-hua70,87936.12% Cheng Yung-chin64,55132.89% Chiu Ching-chun59,39330.26% Hsu Neng-an1,4240.73% +Mayor of Hsinchu CityPartyCandidateVotes% James Tsai81,32856.11% Lin Chih-cheng62,01742.79% Wang Shao-chuan1,5931.10%
+Magistrate of Miaoli CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Fu Hsueh-peng153,52854.80% Ho Chih-hui99,10935.37% Huang Ta-yeh15,8715.66% Hsu Chin-jung11,6784.17%
+Magistrate of Taichung CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Liao Yung-lai223,22237.60% Kuo Jung-cheng173,66729.26% Shyu Jong-shyong144,42724.33% Liu Chuan-chung35,5335.99% Chen Chin-lung10,8041.82% Chien Wen-nan5,9501.00%
+Mayor of Taichung CityPartyCandidateVotes% Chang Wen-ying179,46149.57% Hung Chao-nan149,43841.28% Sung Ai-ke26,5157.32% Cheng Pang-chen6,6221.83%
+Magistrate of Changhua CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Juan Kang-meng290,33549.56% Wong Chin-chu285,05848.66% Chang Jung-chang10,4431.78% +Magistrate of Nantou CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Peng Pai-hsien78,69031.61% Lin Tsung-nan76,68930.80% Hsu Hui-yu74,96630.11% Chen Cheng-sheng18,0667.26% Wu Ching-chiang5590.22% +Magistrate of Yunlin CountyPartyCandidateVotes%Su Wen-hsiung125,37634.93% Chang Jung-wei122,16634.04% Liao Ta-lin104,49929.11% Ou Ming-shien6,8821.92%
+Magistrate of Chiayi CountyPartyCandidateVotes%Lee Ya-ching136,16153.26% Ho Chia-jong119,49946.74% +Mayor of Chiayi CityPartyCandidateVotes% Chang Po-ya58,54450.23% Chiang Yi-hsiung49,55142.52% Tsai Hung-chang6,3505.45% Tsang Ting-sheng2,1031.80% +Magistrate of Tainan CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Mark Chen328,64165.73% Hung Yu-chin171,35734.27%
+Mayor of Tainan CityPartyCandidateVotes% George Chang116,14535.75% Lin Nan-sheng68,12420.97% Hsu Tain-tsair64,22819.77% Chen Jung-cheng57,85417.81% Lin Shou-hung9,0972.80% Kao Chia-chun4,7371.46% Fang Chin-hai4,6991.45% +Magistrate of Kaohsiung CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Yu Cheng-hsien271,98951.74% Huang Hung-tu234,96044.69% Cheng Te-hui10,5752.01% Lin Ching-yuan8,2011.56% +Magistrate of Pingtung CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Su Jia-chyuan227,50655.42% Tseng Yung-chuan170,15441.45% Lee Ching-wen12,8673.13% +Magistrate of Taitung CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Chen Chien-nien48,36547.64% Hsu Ching-yuan47,34046.63% Huang Chao-hui5,8185.73% +Magistrate of Hualien CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Wang Ching-feng72,45656.76% You Ying-lung55,19443.24% +Magistrate of Penghu CountyPartyCandidateVotes% Lai Feng-wei20,94657.53% Hsu Pi-long15,19442.47%
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
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, in addition to the discontent with Chen's aggressive policies.
Kaohsiung
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.
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. 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 as being "inhumane" after he agreed to act as a 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. The Hsieh–Wu contest was described as “a mud-slinging match between two unsightly, naked men.”
References