Taiwan elections: Rivals strike deep in front runner Lai's stronghold Tainan - The Straits Times

TAINAN – Cab driver Wang Yong-li from Taiwan’s oldest city, Tainan, is a bit hesitant when asked who he would vote for in the Jan 13 presidential election.

“The candidate I vote for would not win anyway,” he said.

Then, after a pause, the 54-year-old lets on that he supports the main opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT). 

If Mr Wang sounds pessimistic, it is because Tainan is not only a stronghold of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but also where DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te, 64, made his mark as a politician. He was first a lawmaker representing the southern metropolis of about 1.8 million people, and then its mayor.

A popular travel destination famous for its ancient fortresses and local snacks, Tainan was founded by the Dutch in 1624 and was the capital of Taiwan until 1887.

The coastal city, dominated by Minnan-speaking Taiwanese whose ancestors had moved there from China’s southern Fujian province as early as the 1600s, has traditionally supported the pro-independence DPP rather than the China-friendly KMT.

At the 2020 presidential election, nearly 68 per cent in Tainan voted for the DPP’s Ms Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate, Mr Lai, who won with a record 8.17 million votes or 57.1 per cent of the vote.

But the odds have not stopped Mr Lai’s presidential race rivals – Mr Hou Yu-ih of KMT and Dr Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) – from making incursions into the city in an attempt to snatch votes from Mr Lai’s power base.

On Jan 8, Mr Hou, 66, went around two districts in the city in a motorcade and also visited temples and an evening market. Dr Ko, 64, spent two days in the same week campaigning, drawing a snaking queue of young people lining up at a night market to take a picture with him. 

Tainan might not be the iron-clad “warehouse of votes” for the DPP as people assume it to be, said political analyst Shih Cheng-feng, who retired from Taiwan’s National Dong Hwa University in 2023.

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2024-01-10 10:50:00Z
CBMigAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zdHJhaXRzdGltZXMuY29tL2FzaWEvZWFzdC1hc2lhL3RhaXdhbi1lbGVjdGlvbnMtcml2YWxzLXRyeS10by1zbmF0Y2gtdm90ZXMtZnJvbS1mcm9udHJ1bm5lci1sYWktcy1zdHJvbmdob2xkLXRhaW5hbtIBAA