Sunday Times 2
Taiwan votes in key elections ahead of presidential polls
View(s):TAIPEI, Nov 29 (AFP) -Voters go to the polls today in Taiwan’s largest ever local elections, with the Beijing-friendly ruling party facing a rout in a key test ahead of the 2016 presidential race.
Opinion polls suggest the Kuomintang (KMT) are heading for heavy losses as they struggle with growing fears over Chinese influence, a slowing economy and a string of food scandals.
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou arrives at a voting station during local elections in Taipei (REUTERS)
Leadership elections are due in early 2016 with China policy a key issue as embattled President Ma Ying-jeou — who came to power in 2008 on a Beijing-friendly platform — must step down at the end of his second four-year term.
Around 15,000 polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0000 GMT), with 18 million people eligible to vote and a record 11,130 seats at every level of local government up for grabs.
Ma smiled and waved at reporters when asked if he was confident about his party’s performance as he voted in the capital Taipei, but made no comment.
‘Too close to China’
The KMT currently dominates 15 of Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties, while the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds seven. Of the six larger municipalities — the most hotly contested seats — the KMT controls three in the north and one in the centre, against the DPP’s two in the south.
Ma ended the DPP’s eight-year rule in 2008 when he was elected on a pledge to boost the economy and trade with China. He has overseen a marked improvement in previously frosty ties between Taipei and Beijing.
However, the public has grown increasingly anxious over China’s influence on the island.
A proposed trade pact with the mainland sparked mass student-led protests and a three-week occupation of Taiwan’s parliament earlier this year.
The DPP has traditionally been sceptical over closer ties with Beijing and has criticised the KMT for lack of transparency over trade deals with China as well as incompetence in handling domestic issues. Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war but Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
“I support the DPP because I think the Ma government is leaning too close to China and opening up trade too much… many factories have moved to China and many Taiwanese young people can’t find jobs,” a retired businessman surnamed Hsiao told AFP at a polling station in Taipei.