TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) won 13 out of the 21 city and county leadership posts up for election in 2022. They counted victories in Taipei City and Taoyuan City, which they lost to independent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), respectively, in 2014.
The election for the mayor of Chiayi City was rescheduled to Dec. 18 after one of the city's six mayoral candidates passed away in early November. The unfortunate news forced the city to restart registration procedures for the local election, as required by law.
In 2014, the then-opposition DPP defeated the KMT to secure 13 out of the 22 city and county leadership posts, leaving KMT to administer only six regions.
Four years later, in 2018, the "Han wave" boosted turnout for the KMT and delivered wins in 15 out of the 22 city and county leadership posts, including the traditionally deep-green DPP stronghold of Kaohsiung, where Han became mayor. After the 9-in-1 elections in 2018, the DPP controlled only six of the 22 offices.
However, the KMT lost Kaohsiung again in 2020 after Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was ousted in a recall, which triggered a by-election that delivered the city back to the DPP. This left the KMT with a still commanding 14 local government offices going into this year's city and county elections.
At the time of publication, the candidates who either passed the winning threshold, or had strong leads, in all 21 local races had already declared their victory on Saturday evening, prior to the Central Election Commission's (CEC) official announcement.
The KMT's victories on Saturday will leave the ruling DPP in control of only five out of the 21 local government offices. Former legislator Ann Kao (高虹安), representing the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), declared her victory in securing the mayor's office in Hsinchu City.
The winners of the Taiwan's 2022 local elections, based on initial results, are as follows:
Keelung City: Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), KMT
Taipei City: Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), KMT
New Taipei City: Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), KMT
Taoyuan City: Simon Chang (張善政), KMT
Hsinchu City: Ann Kao (高虹安), TPP
Hsinchu County: Yang Wen-ke (楊文科), KMT
Miaoli County: Zhong Dongjin (鍾東錦), independent
Taichung City: Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), KMT
Changhua County: Wang Hui-mei (王惠美), KMT
Yunlin County: Chang Li-shan (張麗善), KMT
Nantou County: Hsu Shu-Hua (許淑華), KMT
Chiayi City: N/A. The election for the mayor has been halted and postponed to Dec. 18.
Chiayi County: Weng Chang-Liang (翁章梁), DPP
Tainan City: Huang Wei-chi (黃偉哲), DPP
Kaohsiung City: Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), DPP
Pingtung County: Chou Chun-mi (周春米), DPP
Yilan County: Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙), KMT
Hualien County: Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚), KMT
Taitung County: Yao Ching-Ling (饒慶鈴), KMT
Lienchiang County: Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘), KMT
Kinmen County: Chen Fu-Hai (陳福海), independent
Penghu County: Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復), DPP
The infographics below show preliminary results for the mayoral and commissioner elections:
(Designed by Lin Yu-wen, Taiwan News)
