Taiwan's opposition scores gains in local elections - Summary

Taipei - Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Saturday scored gains in local elections, raising its hopes of regaining power from President Ma Ying-jeou's China-friendly KMT party. Out of the 17 city mayoral and country magistrate seats, the DPP held on to its three seats and won over Ilan County, a traditional stronghold of the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

The KMT retained 12 of its 14 seats, losing one to DPP and the other to a KMT rebel.

As the DPP closed the gap in several other localities, it signaled the comeback of the DPP which lost to the KMT in the 2008 presidential polls - after eight years' rule - due to the corruption tainted administration of ex-president Chen Shui-bian.

"Today's election outcome shows the DPP has gained a steady foothold and the DPP has walked out of the bottom of the valley. It is the people of Taiwan's vote of no confidence for President Ma's performance," DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ying-wen said.

"It shows that Ma, in his political and economic policies, has strayed from the will of the people," she told a news conference.

Tsai, while happy to see the DPP successes, said there was still a long way before the DPP could reach its goal of seizing power.

President Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, acknowledged the KMT setback, calling it a "warning signal."

"We will humbly make self-examination. We are grateful that despite the economic downturn and high jobless rate, people still allow us to run 12 countries and cities," he said.

According to the Central Election Commission, the DPP snatched 45.3 per cent of votes, up from 42 per cent in the 2005 local elections, while the KMT captured 48 per cent votes, down from 51 per cent in 2005.

Analysts said the results will redefine the power bases of the KMT and DPP, and set the tone for next year's elections for four cities and counties directly controlled by the central government. These results will in turn affect the outcome of the 2012 presidential polls.

"In many constituencies, the KMT failed to win the majority vote, which should serve as a big warning to the ruling party," said Wang Yeh-lih, political science professor at National Taiwan University.

Wang acknowledged that the local polls were a mid-term test of Ma and his government's performances since he took office in May last year.

Ma's popularity has dropped due to several factors, including his moving too close to China, Taiwan's economic woes, the poor handling of Typhoon Morakot in August which killed more than 700, and the further opening of the market to US beef.

"Many people are disappointed by the incompetence of Ma's administration and the lack of transparency in his policy making. If the Ma government does not improve, it might lose the 2012 presidential election," Chen Ah-lu, a political analyst, told the German Press Agency dpa.