Word: kaohsiung
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Supporters of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are celebrating a narrow win in Saturday's mayoral election in the southern port city of Kaohsiung this week. But the greatest exultation over the result may be in the capital, Taipei. The Kaohsiung race had been viewed as a key indicator of whether the corruption scandals involving President Chen Shui-bian and his family had seriously damaged the strength of his party. The DPP's narrow victory indicates that the President, whom many opponents were expecting to step down just a month ago, still has some clout left. "I think...
...That relief didn't come easy. In Taipei, DPP candidate Frank Hsieh lost the mayoral race to Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Hau Lung-bin by about 13%. But Taipei, a KMT stronghold, was a race the DPP was expected to lose. In Kaohsiung, on the other hand, the DPP has held the mayoral seat for the past eight years. DPP candidate Chen Chu, an ex-labor minister and former political prisoner, won by 1,114 votes, just .14% of the total 767,868 ballots cast. She had trailed in opinion polls in the weeks before the election and acknowledged that...
...bookkeeping problems regarding his mayoral expense account, and was questioned by prosecutors about official funds that DPP lawmakers accuse him of keeping for himself. While he denies any wrongdoing, Ma's woes have helped solidify the DPP faithful's support of the President. And with a win in Kaohsiung, the party can also salvage some momentum for legislative elections next year and the presidential race in 2008, when Chen can't seek another term. "It basically means that 2008 is up for grabs," says Sheng. "I think before this election most people felt Ma Ying-jeou...
...Though Chen trails in the race, she is in many ways the more charismatic candidate. A founding member of the DPP, she spent six years in prison for her participation in a pivotal 1979 pro-democracy protest against the then-ruling Kuomintang, which came to be known as the Kaohsiung Incident. She is a fiery speaker, and can easily attract hundreds of supporters to public rallies. And she's running a campaign that emphasizes her ties to Hsieh's powerful legacy - her supporters carry signs that say, "Good baton, pass it on." During his six years in office Hsieh...
...rule in Kaohsiung comes with some baggage. Last year migrant Thai workers on a Kaohsiung mass transit project rioted over poor working conditions; a subsequent investigation led to the indictment of DPP city officials and a former presidential aide on charges of accepting bribes. Chen Chu, Taiwan's labor minister at the time, was not linked to the corruption scandal, but she resigned to take responsibility for the treatment of the Thai workers. And the allegations of corruption against those close to the President are causing the DPP even bigger headaches. "The day of the [First Lady's] indictment...