TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In Taiwan’s Miaoli County, the election for county magistrate was won by the Miaoli County council speaker, an independent and former Kuomintang (KMT) party member, Zhong Dongjin (鍾東錦).

Polling stations were closed for barely an hour, when the KMT's nominee Hsieh Fu-hung (謝福弘) conceded the race to Zhong. Zhong initially sought to become the KMT candidate in the race, but was rebuffed by the party for his sordid past and association with organized crime in the county.

Deep-blue Miaoli has been a stronghold of KMT governance for over 70 years, and also has a reputation for criminal organizations exerting an outsize influence over local politics.

Controversy over Zhong’s candidacy ultimately led to the KMT kicking him out of the party. However, this did not dissuade Zhong from running with a significant amount of local support, despite his lengthy criminal record, which includes a charge of homicide, among other crimes.

The KMT recruited the chairman of the Miaoli County Farmer’s Irrigation Association to run against him. Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) fielded Hsu Ting-chen (徐定禎), the mayor of Toufen, in northern Miaoli, in hopes of taking advantage of the pan-blue camp’s votes being split between Zhong and Hsieh.

Zhong ultimately received over 124,000 votes and almost 43% of the total vote share, easily winning the election. The DPP’s nominee Hsu received 31% of the total vote share with almost 91,000 votes. A candidate for the New Power Party, Song Kuo-ting (宋國鼎) won over 13% of the total with 39,000 votes, while the KMT's Hsieh took close to 11%, with a little over 32,000 votes.

While Zhong’s victory technically ends KMT governance in Miaoli, Zhong’s policies are unlikely to depart too far from the pan-blue, KMT aligned interests.