1997–98 Taiwanese local elections

1997–98 Taiwanese local elections
	29 November 1997; 5 December 1998
All 25 mayors/magistrates of special municipalities, cities, counties

Local elections of Taiwan were held in 1997 and 1998 to elect magistrates of counties and mayors of cities on 29 November 1997, and mayors and councillors of special municipalities on 5 December 1998.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won in the 1997 election, controlling majority of mayors/magistrates across the country and winning more popular votes than the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) for the first time.[1] While the two polls were seen as confidence votes of President Lee Teng-hui, they marked the beginning of the historic peaceful transition of power which would occur in 2000.

Counties and cities

Election results for counties and cities

During the election rally, President Lee endorsed Kuomintang candidate Kente Chen in Taoyuan magisterial election. Lee, who is also chairman of the Kuomintang, claimed he has been a registered voter in Taoyuan for years instead of Taipei. It was later rebuked by Chen Shui-bian, mayor of Taipei, that he was still registered as Taipei resident. Chen further slammed Lee as "senile" for not knowing his residence, suggesting Lee should get an elderly chain so not to get lost. Kuomintang seniors in response denounced Chen's comments.

The DPP successfully flipped in six counties/cities, including Keelung City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Taichung County, Tainan City, and Pingtung County, but defeated in Penghu County.[2] Incumbent magistrate of Miaoli County from the KMT was defeated by independent candidate.

Turnout of the election is 65.92%, with 7,784,908 voting out of 11,809,277 registered electorates.

Magistrate of Taipei
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Su Tseng-chang	571,658	40.67%
Kuomintang	Hsieh Shen-shan	543,516	38.67%
Independent	Lin Chih-chia	154,590	11.00%
Independent	廖學廣	70,619	5.02%
New	楊泰順	32,902	2.34%
Independent	Stella Chou	32,373	2.30%

**Mayor of Keelung City**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Lee Chin-yung	73,398	42.75%
Kuomintang	Liu Wen-hsiung	65,176	37.97%
Independent	Hsu Tsai-li	33,099	19.28%

**Magistrate of Yilan County**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	DPP	Liu Shou-cheng	122,114	53.83%
	Kuomintang	Liao Feng-teh	104,744	46.17%

**Magistrate of Taoyuan County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Annette Lu	375,500	56.20%
Kuomintang	Kente Chen	286,993	42.96%
Social Reform Party	徐運德	5,619	0.84%

**Magistrate of Hsinchu County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Lin Kuang-hua	70,879	36.12%
Kuomintang	Cheng Yung-chin	64,551	32.89%
Independent	Chiu Ching-chun	59,393	30.26%
Independent	徐能安	1,424	0.73%

**Mayor of Hsinchu City**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	James Tsai	81,328	56.11%
Kuomintang	林志成	62,017	42.79%
Independent	王少泉	1,593	1.10%

**Magistrate of Miaoli County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Independent	Fu Hsueh-peng	153,528	54.80%
Kuomintang	何智輝	99,109	35.37%
New	黃達業	15,871	5.66%
DPP	徐進榮	11,678	4.17%

**Magistrate of Taichung County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Liao Yung-lai	223,222	37.60%
Kuomintang	Kuo Jung-cheng	173,667	29.26%
Kuomintang	Shyu Jong-shyong	144,427	24.33%
Independent	Liu Chuan-chung	35,533	5.99%
Independent	陳欽隆	10,804	1.82%
Independence	錢文南	5,950	1.00%

**Mayor of Taichung City**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Chang Wen-ying	179,461	49.57%
Kuomintang	洪昭男	149,438	41.28%
New	宋艾克	26,515	7.32%
Independence	鄭邦鎮	6,622	1.83%

**Magistrate of Changhua County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Kuomintang	阮剛猛	290,335	49.56%
DPP	Wong Chin-chu	285,058	48.66%
Independent	張榮昌	10,443	1.78%

**Magistrate of Nantou County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Independent	Peng Pai-hsien	78,690	31.61%
DPP	Lin Tsung-nan	76,689	30.80%
Kuomintang	許惠祐	74,966	30.11%
New	Chen Cheng-sheng	18,066	7.26%
Independent	吳清江	559	0.22%

**Magistrate of Yunlin County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Kuomintang	蘇文雄	125,376	34.93%
Independent	張榮味	122,166	34.04%
DPP	廖大林	104,499	29.11%
Independent	歐明憲	6,882	1.92%

**Magistrate of Chiayi County**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Kuomintang	李雅景	136,161	53.26%
	DPP	何嘉榮	119,499	46.74%

**Mayor of Chiayi City**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Independent	Chang Po-ya	58,544	50.23%
Kuomintang	江義雄	49,551	42.52%
DPP	蔡鴻章	6,350	5.45%
Independence	臧汀生	2,103	1.80%

**Magistrate of Tainan County**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	DPP	Mark Chen	328,641	65.73%
	Kuomintang	洪玉欽	171,357	34.27%

**Mayor of Tainan City**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	George Chang	116,145	35.75%
Kuomintang	林南生	68,124	20.97%
Independent	Hsu Tain-tsair	64,228	19.77%
Kuomintang	陳榮盛	57,854	17.81%
Independent	林壽宏	9,097	2.80%
New	高家俊	4,737	1.46%
Independent	方金海	4,699	1.45%

**Magistrate of Kaohsiung County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Yu Cheng-hsien	271,989	51.74%
Kuomintang	黃鴻都	234,960	44.69%
Independent	鄭德耀	10,575	2.01%
Independent	林景元	8,201	1.56%

**Magistrate of Pingtung County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
DPP	Su Jia-chyuan	227,506	55.42%
Kuomintang	Tseng Yung-chuan	170,154	41.45%
Independent	李景雯	12,867	3.13%

**Magistrate of Taitung County**
	Candidate	Votes	%
Kuomintang	Chen Chien-nien	48,365	47.64%
Independent	Hsu Ching-yuan	47,340	46.63%
DPP	Huang Chao-hui	5,818	5.73%

**Magistrate of Hualian County**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Kuomintang	Wang Ching-feng	72,456	56.76%
	DPP	游盈隆	55,194	43.24%

**Magistrate of Penghu County**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Kuomintang	Lai Feng-wei	20,946	57.53%
	DPP	許丕龍	15,194	42.47%

Special municipalities

Election results for special municipalities

Elections for mayors and councillors of special municipalities Taipei and Kaohsiung were held on 5 December 1998. The nail-biting election resulted in both incumbents defeated with a narrow margin, including an unexpected victory for the DPP in Kaohsiung.

Taipei

Taipei mayoral election result by districts

Districts led by Ma Ying-jeou

Districts led by Chen Shui-bian

Chen Shui-bian of the DPP seek a second four-year term with a high popularity of 80%, while the KMT nominated Ma Ying-jeou, ex-Minister of Justice who earlier declined to run in the mayoral election. Ma eventually beat Chen by around 0.6% of votes. Analysts believed tactical voting by supporters of New Party contributed to the KMT's win,[3] in addition to the discontent with Chen's aggressive policies.

1998 Taipei mayoral election
Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Ma Ying-jeou	Kuomintang	766,377	51.13
	Chen Shui-bian	Democratic Progressive Party	688,072	45.91
	Wang Chien-shien	New Party	44,452	2.97
Total			1,498,901	100.00

Valid votes			1,498,901	99.16
Invalid/blank votes			12,734	0.84
Total votes			1,511,635	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,868,860	80.89

1998 Taipei City Council election
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Kuomintang	589,907	40.08	23	+3
	Democratic Progressive Party	455,613	30.96	19	+4
	New Party	273,195	18.56	9	-2
	New Nation Alliance	27,282	1.85	0	–
	Green Party Taiwan	22,274	1.51	0	–
	Taiwan Independence Party	9,633	0.65	0	–
	Chinese Woman's Party	923	0.06	0	–
	Independents	92,966	6.32	1	-5
Total		1,471,793	100.00	52	–

Valid votes		1,471,793	97.61
Invalid/blank votes		36,051	2.39
Total votes		1,507,844	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,864,314	80.88

Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung mayoral election result by districts

Districts led by Wu Den-yih

Districts led by Frank Hsieh

Following the defeat in vice-presidential election, Frank Hsieh of the DPP started considering running in Kaohsiung mayoral election. In 1997, Chen Che-nan, Hsieh's party colleague decided not to run against Hsieh in the party primary for the Kaohsiung poll, reportedly after an intervention by Taipei Mayor Chen who later promoted him as secretary-general of Taipei Government.[4]

On the other hand, incumbent Wu Den-yih from the KMT faced small-scale rebellion from local party branch after former Kaohsiung mayor Wang Yu-yun criticised Wu for being ungrateful.[5] In the run-up of the election, an ex-secretary of Wu published a recording tape, claiming Wu had an affairs with a reporter. Despite found to be fake after the election, the incident nevertheless damaged Wu's popularity.

During the campaign, Wu attacked Hsieh for "inhumane" after he agreed to be defence attorney for the murderer of Pai Hsiao-yen, hoping to persuade his surrender. The personal attack was said to have further pushed for Hsieh's victory.[4]

1998 Kaohsiung mayoral election
Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Frank Hsieh	Democratic Progressive Party	387,797	48.71
	Wu Den-yih	Kuomintang	383,232	48.13
	Cheng Te-yao	Independent	18,699	2.35
	Wu Chien-kuo	New Party	6,457	0.81
Total			796,185	100.00

Valid votes			796,185	98.54
Invalid/blank votes			11,811	1.46
Total votes			807,996	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			1,004,872	80.41

1998 Kaohsiung City Council election
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Kuomintang	357,163	45.18	25	+2
	Democratic Progressive Party	211,954	26.81	9	-2
	New Party	30,363	3.84	1	-1
	Taiwan Independence Party	14,707	1.86	0	–
	Independents	176,308	22.30	9	+1
Total		790,495	100.00	44	–

Valid votes		790,495	98.02
Invalid/blank votes		15,996	1.98
Total votes		806,491	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,002,480	80.45

References

"1997年縣市長選舉觀察──變遷中的地方政治". 台灣獨立建國聯盟. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
"近5屆縣市長黨籍". UDN. Archived from the original on 2010-11-14.
小笠原欣幸 (2021). 臺灣總統選舉--臺灣認同的成長與爭奪. 大家出版. pp. 152–155. ISBN 978-986-5562-10-6.
郭, 瓊俐 (October 2005). 《打鐵街少年——謝長廷的生命故事》 (in Chinese (Taiwan)) (First ed.). Taipei: 布克文化出版. ISBN 986-81139-7-0.
"王玉雲批吳敦義過河拆橋". CTS News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 1998-07-01. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-14.

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[得票率-1] "1997年縣市長選舉觀察──變遷中的地方政治". 台灣獨立建國聯盟. Retrieved 2023-04-08.

[2] "近5屆縣市長黨籍". UDN. Archived from the original on 2010-11-14.

[未命名-20230316180217-3] 小笠原欣幸 (2021). 臺灣總統選舉--臺灣認同的成長與爭奪. 大家出版. pp. 152–155. ISBN 978-986-5562-10-6.

[謝-4] 郭, 瓊俐 (October 2005). 《打鐵街少年——謝長廷的生命故事》 (in Chinese (Taiwan)) (First ed.). Taipei: 布克文化出版. ISBN 986-81139-7-0.

[5] "王玉雲批吳敦義過河拆橋". CTS News (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 1998-07-01. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-14.

Elections and referendums in Taiwan
Presidential elections	1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Legislative Yuan elections	1969 1972 1975 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Local elections	1935 1936 1939 1940 1946 1950–51 1952 1954 1955 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1963 1964 1965 1968 1969 1971 1972 1973 1975 1977 1978 1981 1982 1985 1986 1989 1990 1993 1994 1997–98 2001–02 2005–06 2009 2010 2014 2018 2020 2022 2026
Referendums	2004 2008 (Jan) 2008 (Mar) 2018 2021 2022
National Assembly elections	1969 1972 1980 1986 1991 1996 2005
See also: Elections in the Republic of China (1912–49) Presidential elections in the Republic of China List of by-elections in Taiwan