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Taiwan: Election 2004

© Douglas Charles Rapier

As you might have heard on CNN or read in one of the more reputable newspapers, Taiwan has recently held its third presidential election. The 'nation*' is now undergoing one of the more painful throes of democracy as the election results are being vociferously disputed by the coalition party which ran against the incumbent president, Chen Shuei-bien. Ah-bien, as he is known by his supporters, is the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and is the first leader of Taiwan who was not a member of the Nationalist Party (KMT) the party of Chang Kai-Shek. Ah-bien retained the presidency by the slimmest of margins - fewer than 30,000 votes, less .2% of the votes cast.

Is this ringing any bells for American readers?

The coalition of the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) had been expected to win in a walk. The KMT candidate for president, Lien Chang had been the premiere and the vice-president under Lee Teng-hui, the first democratically elected leader of a Chinese government in history. James Soong, the leader of the People First Party, had been a KMT stalwart and the provincial governor of Taiwan before the post was eliminated under a new constitution. Four years ago, Lien of the KMT and Soong of the PFP (at the time known as the New Party) each ran on separate tickets effectively splitting the KMT electorate and allowing Ah-bien to win with only 39% of the votes.

Lien and Soong and the coalition felt sure that their coalition could sweep into office and wrest control of the 'country*' from the DPP. Confidence in their political tactics was bolstered by the polls which indicated that they held a solid 30% lead on Ah-bien just weeks before the election. Nascent scandals and scurrilous rumors regarding the financial dealings of the first lady were headline news. (Dingle-ling-a-ling...) Ah-bien's own policy advocating the drafting of a new constitution declaring independence from Mainland China, thus provoking Beijing and inviting armed retaliation was highly divisive. The KMT/PFP coalition played on the fears of their supporters, pledging that they were the candidates of peace and prosperity. Everything seemed to be going their way. Until the very end, that is.

In a further, one might say, greedy attempt to wheedle more support from the DPP camp, Lien and Soong began to waffle on their stated notions of nation and sovereignty. The final weeks before the election saw Ah-bien gain dramatically in the polls. The candidates were in a dead-heat by election day. Both camps (known as 'Pan-Blue' for the KMT/PFP coalition and 'Green' for the DPP, the team colors as it were) scrambled for votes and had organized huge rallies to take place on the last day of the campaign, March 19th. That is when fate (or something masquerading as fate) intervened.

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