| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Registered | 15,462,625 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turnout | 82.69% (6.65pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 18 March 2000 to elect the president and vice president. With a voter turnout of 83%, Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were elected president and vice president respectively with a slight plurality.
This election ended more than half a century of Kuomintang (KMT) rule on the island, during which it had governed as a one-party state since the retreat of the government from the Chinese mainland during the closing stages of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. This was also the first time in Chinese history that a ruling political party peacefully transferred power to an opposition party under a democratic system. The nominees included the then-current vice president Lien Chan for the KMT, former provincial governor James Soong as an independent candidate (upon his loss of the KMT nomination), and former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian for the DPP.
Controversy arose throughout the course of the election; in particular, the candidacy of James Soong was beset by accusations of splitting the Kuomintang vote and involvement in corruption during the presidency of Lee Teng-hui, culminating in protests and the expulsion of the latter from the Kuomintang, while Chen's campaign attracted criticism from neighboring China due to his party's traditionally pro-independence stance. The issues of corruption and cross-strait relations were dominant during this election. [1] Chen's victory was initially seen as unlikely, but several compounded effects like the splitting of the Kuomintang vote and the aforementioned controversies are seen as having led to his victory. Chen performed most strongly in the southern part of Taiwan, while Soong tended to win in northern areas.
The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) ran vice president Lien Chan for president and Premier Vincent Siew for vice president. [2] Both were career civil servants and Lien, originating from the Taiwanese aristocracy, was seen as aloof and unable to empathize with the common people. [3]
Though more popular and consistently ranked higher in the polls, the outspoken former Taiwan governor James Soong failed to gain the Kuomintang's nomination. [4] As a result, he announced his candidacy as an independent candidate. The Kuomintang responded by expelling Soong in November 1999. [5] It is a very common belief among KMT supporters that president Lee Teng-hui was secretly supporting Chen Shui-bian, and purposely supported the less popular Lien in order to split the Kuomintang, [6] [7] and this belief was given a great deal of credibility after the 2000 election with Lee's defection to the Pan-Green coalition, though Lee's defection came only after his expulsion by the KMT. [8] Soong, a mainlander, tried to appeal to the native Taiwanese by nominating surgeon Chang Chao-hsiung, who is a native Taiwanese, as his running-mate. [9] This, combined with the fact that Chang had connections to both the Democratic Progressive Party and the KMT reinforced Soong's campaign message of bridging political and cultural divide. [10]
In December 1999 the KMT began to attack Soong's integrity. They sued Soong for theft, alleging that as party secretary-general, he stole millions of Taiwan dollars in cash [11] intended for the family of the late president Chiang Ching-kuo and hid the money in the Chunghsing Bills Finance Co. [12] [13] Soong defended himself by saying he was acting under Lee's direction, [11] [12] though Lee denied this and many found the explanation unconvincing. [14] Initially holding a commanding lead in the polls, [5] Soong ended up losing by just over 300,000 votes. [2]
Both candidates had some obstacles presenting themselves as reform candidates with regard to corruption, given their high rank in the Kuomintang government. Soong's strategy was to openly admit his past wrongdoing and present his insider status as an advantage: i.e. that he could most easily tackle the corruption because of his experience with it; however, many saw his credibility as a reformer as broken by his financial scandal. [15] Lien advocated for reform, but had some difficulty in direct criticism as such attacks may have offended the ruling government; this is thought to have contributed to his defeat. [16]
The DPP ran former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian and Taoyuan County magistrate Annette Lu for vice president. [2] Having run for the 1996 election on a radical independence platform and lost by a landslide, [17] [18] the DPP in May 1999 moderated its stance [19] by issuing the "Resolution on the Future of Taiwan". [20] The resolution accepted the status quo and promoted the moderate view that Taiwan was already independent, so any formal declaration would not be urgently necessary, if at all, [21] and Chen presented a more conciliatory stance regarding the mainland. [18] Also included was the pledge that any change in Taiwan's international status will have to be done through a referendum, [20] thus alleviating the fear that, if elected, a DPP government would unilaterally declare independence without popular approval. The Chen-Lu ticket also promised to be more aggressive in fighting black gold, [22] [18] a system of connections and corruption which had become intertwined with the KMT. [23] The last minute public endorsement of Chen Shui-bian by President of the Academia Sinica and Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee is also thought to have played a role in his election, [24] with Yuan T. Lee offering to negotiate with the PRC on Taiwan's behalf. [25]
All independent presidential tickets were required to turn in a petition of 224,000 names to the Central Election Commission to confirm their candidacy and appear on the ballot. [26]
Former DPP Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang, who had quit the party after failing to prevent Chen from running, ran as an independent with New Party (NP) legislator Josephine Chu as his running mate. [2] As DPP Chairman, Hsu had moderated the platform of the party, promoting reconciliation with the People's Republic of China and the opening of direct links, [27] a move not then supported by the KMT. [28] During the 2000 campaign, the Hsu-Chu ticket promoted unification under something similar to, but not the same as, 'one country, two systems', claiming that that exact system would be "bound to bring immediate loss to Taiwan". [29]
The New Party nominated independent social commentator Li Ao—an acclaimed author, historian, and former political prisoner [30] —for president and legislator Elmer Fung for vice president. [31] Li, who supported "one country, two systems", [32] [33] said he took the election as an opportunity to educate the people in Taiwan on his ideas, and show them the nation's "dark side". [34] Despite his nomination Li refused to join the NP. [31] Both he and the NP publicly encouraged people to vote for James Soong to the point of stating during the televised presidential debates that he was not planning to vote for himself and that people should vote for Soong so that the pro-unification vote would not be split. [35]
A white paper issued by the People's Republic of China (PRC) prior to the election had mentioned that they would "not permit the 'Taiwan question' to drag on", which generated condemnation from American leaders, including John Kerry and Stanley Roth; along with a downturn in the stock market, but little in terms of a Taiwanese reaction. [36] Then, shortly before the election, Zhu Rongji, the premier of the People's Republic of China attempted to influence the outcome, warning that voters should "not just act on impulse at this juncture, which will decide the future course that China and Taiwan will follow" and should "shun a pro-independence candidate", further stating that "[n]o matter who comes into power in Taiwan, Taiwan will never be allowed to be independent. This is our bottom line and the will of 1.25 billion Chinese people." [37] [38] According to Christopher R. Hughes, emeritus professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, a conclusion was made that the statements of Chinese government had actually been counterproductive and helped Chen to win; [18] consequently, China avoided making such an open attempt to influence the 2004 elections, adopting a "wait and see" attitude with Chen. [39]
Voting was held on 18 March 2000. [40] [2] The Soong-Chang ticket appeared first on the ballot, followed by the Kuomintang's Lien and Siew, then two independent tickets, Li-Fung and Hsu-Chu. The eventual winning DPP ticket of Chen and Lu were listed fifth. [41] Chen's ticket won by a margin of about 2.46%, ahead of Soong in second place and Chan in third. [2] Generally, the Soong ticket led in the northern half of Taiwan, while the Chen ticket led in the south; however, there were exceptions, including Yilan County in the north, whose vote Chen won, and Taitung County in the south, whose vote Soong won. [42]
Candidate | Running mate | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chen Shui-bian | Annette Lu | Democratic Progressive Party | 4,977,697 | 39.30 | |
James Soong | Chang Chau-hsiung | Independent | 4,664,972 | 36.84 | |
Lien Chan | Vincent Siew | Kuomintang | 2,925,513 | 23.10 | |
Hsu Hsin-liang | Josephine Chu | Independent | 79,429 | 0.63 | |
Li Ao | Elmer Fung | New Party | 16,782 | 0.13 | |
Total | 12,664,393 | 100.00 | |||
Valid votes | 12,664,393 | 99.04 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 122,278 | 0.96 | |||
Total votes | 12,786,671 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 15,462,625 | 82.69 | |||
Source: CEC |
County/City | James Soong, Chang Chau-hsiung | Lien Chan, Vincent Siew | Li Ao, Elmer Fung | Hsu Hsin-liang, Josephine Chu | Chen Shui-bian, Annette Lu | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vote count | % | Vote count | % | Vote count | % | Vote count | % | Vote count | % | |
Taipei City | 631,538 | 39.79% | 347,564 | 21.90% | 1,876 | 0.12% | 8,723 | 0.25% | 597,465 | 37.64% |
Taipei County | 812,821 | 40.26% | 451,707 | 22.37% | 2,384 | 0.12% | 10,641 | 0.53% | 741,659 | 36.73% |
Keelung | 106,032 | 47.01% | 48,545 | 21.52% | 295 | 0.13% | 1,116 | 0.49% | 69,555 | 30.84% |
Yilan | 86,549 | 33.05% | 51,082 | 19.51% | 350 | 0.13% | 736 | 0.28% | 123,157 | 47.30% |
Taoyuan | 413,370 | 43.83% | 208,881 | 22.15% | 1,140 | 0.12% | 20,581 | 2.18% | 299,120 | 31.72% |
Hsinchu County | 128,231 | 51.58% | 51,442 | 20.69% | 309 | 0.12% | 7,093 | 2.85% | 61,533 | 24.25% |
Hsinchu City | 88,412 | 42.83% | 46,234 | 22.40% | 292 | 0.14% | 1,746 | 0.85% | 69,760 | 33.97% |
Miaoli | 160,533 | 49.54% | 71,798 | 22.20% | 399 | 0.12% | 3,931 | 1.22% | 86,707 | 26.81% |
Taichung County | 318,499 | 38.10% | 206,832 | 24.74% | 1,176 | 0.14% | 4,304 | 0.51% | 305,219 | 36.51% |
Taichung City | 217,486 | 41.37% | 111,391 | 21.19% | 616 | 0.12% | 2,463 | 0.47% | 193,796 | 36.86% |
Changhua County | 251,310 | 33.71% | 191,685 | 25.71% | 1,070 | 0.14% | 2,811 | 0.38% | 298,571 | 40.05% |
Nantou | 144,863 | 46.94% | 56,025 | 18.15% | 395 | 0.13% | 914 | 0.30% | 106,440 | 34.49% |
Yunlin | 114,188 | 27.70% | 102,177 | 24.78% | 975 | 0.24% | 1,230 | 0.30% | 193,715 | 45.99% |
Chiayi County | 85,890 | 26.98% | 73,409 | 23.06% | 561 | 0.18% | 920 | 0.29% | 157,512 | 49.49% |
Chiayi City | 43,773 | 29.34% | 34,670 | 23.24% | 169 | 0.11% | 448 | 0.30% | 70,124 | 47.01% |
Tainan County | 136,217 | 21.10% | 159,443 | 24.70% | 1,164 | 0.18% | 1,582 | 0.25% | 347,210 | 53.78% |
Tainan City | 114,299 | 27.53% | 107,679 | 25.93% | 580 | 0.14% | 1,408 | 0.34% | 191,261 | 45.06% |
Kaohsiung City | 259,023 | 29.78% | 208,544 | 23.97% | 877 | 0.10% | 3,103 | 0.36% | 398,381 | 45.79% |
Kaohsiung County | 206,616 | 28.43% | 174,021 | 23.95% | 1,024 | 0.14% | 2,478 | 0.34% | 342,553 | 47.14% |
Pintung County | 131,371 | 25.48% | 142,934 | 27.73% | 692 | 0.13% | 1,939 | 0.38% | 238,572 | 45.28% |
Hualien County | 109,962 | 58.81% | 36,042 | 19.28% | 194 | 0.10% | 736 | 0.39% | 40,044 | 21.24% |
Taitung County | 63,913 | 52.78% | 28,659 | 23.66% | 136 | 0.11% | 294 | 0.24% | 28,102 | 23.20% |
Penghu County | 17,723 | 39.55% | 10,418 | 23.25% | 64 | 0.14% | 119 | 0.27% | 16,487 | 36.79% |
Kinmen County | 19,991 | 81.81% | 3,543 | 14.50% | 37 | 0.15% | 105 | 0.43% | 759 | 3.11% |
Lienchiang County (Matsu) | 2,362 | 73.31% | 787 | 24.43% | 7 | 0.22% | 8 | 0.25% | 58 | 1.80% |
(Note: Winners are bolded.) | ||||||||||
Source: CEC [42] |
Chen's victory was seen as unlikely before Soong's financial scandal broke out. [43] Under the first-past-the-post voting system, the split of the KMT vote between James Soong and Lien Chan, who together polled nearly 60% of the vote (compared to Chen's 39%), played a large role in the Taiwan independence-leaning candidate Chen's victory. [44] [13] Soong Chu-yu's financial scandals, Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh's endorsement, and arguably the last minute saber-rattling by the PRC tipped the balance to Chen's favor. [24] [18] [45] Chen's victory marked the first time since the retreat from the mainland that a party other than the KMT won the presidency, ending 50 years of rule by the latter, which was partly under a one-party state. [46] [47] This also marked the first peaceful transition of power under a democratic regime in Chinese history. [48]
As the results were announced, several thousand protesters, mostly KMT loyalists who believed Lee Teng-hui had intentionally tried to sabotage the pro-unification vote, gathered outside the KMT headquarters in Taipei and demanded Lee resign as Chairman. [6] [49] Lee promised to resign at the party congress in September 2000. [6] [49] Though the protest was without permit, the government did not order an end to it, [7] though Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou attempted to dispel the crowd on the first night. [49] The protesters blocked the entrances to the building and kept Lee holed in his office for hours until riot police with water cannon were able to open a path for the motorcade. [7] Protesters also dragged presidential advisor Hsu Li-teh out of his car and beat him. [7] The protests ended in success on March 24 when Lee resigned as KMT Chairman and was replaced by Lien. [50] Ma Ying-jeou also resigned from the Central Standing Committee of the KMT as a result of his dissatisfaction with the leadership at the time, calling for reform. [6] [7]
On the day of the election, Soong announced the formation of the People First Party [6] [49] before a crowd of his supporters, though he urged calm and the avoidance of "bloodshed". [51] In the following party congress, Lien Chan was able to achieve Lee's expulsion [8] and began to move the party back towards a unificationist platform. Lee and his supporters later formed the radical pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union. [8] Lee was expelled from KMT on 21 September 2001, the first party chairman thus far to have membership revoked. [52] To avoid a repeat of the 2000 split, Lien and Soong agreed to run on a single ticket as president and vice president, respectively, in the 2004 election. [53] They made the announcement on 14 February 2003, more than a year before the next presidential election. [54] Nevertheless, they were still defeated by Chen Shui-bian in the next election. [55]
Some authors, including John Fuh-hsieng Hsieh and Shelley Rigger, surmised that Chen Shui-bian's ascent to the presidency was not as groundbreaking as might be thought: [46] the presidency's supposed power was largely drawn from the power a KMT leader would have when both the legislature and the presidency were controlled by the party, [56] but the government of Taiwan was largely dominated by the legislative branch, which remained under the control of the KMT. As such, Chen ascended into a relatively weak presidency. [46] [56] Consequently, Chen's first cabinet consisted of some KMT members along with DPP members. [48] However, after the legislative elections in 2001, Chen was expected to be able to exert more influence, due to the KMT's loss of a majority. [57] Chen's more pro-independence stance initially caused concerns on behalf of the United States to raise such that they sent senior officials to the PRC to ease tensions. [51] Tensions later relaxed, though a somewhat rocky relationship remained. [39]
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is governed in a framework of a representative democratic republic under a five-power system first envisioned by Sun Yat-sen in 1906, whereby under the constitutional amendments, the President is head of state and the Premier is head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the Executive Yuan. Legislative power is vested primarily in the Legislative Yuan. Taiwan's judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. In addition, the Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants, and the Control Yuan inspects, reviews, and audits the policies and operations of the government.
Chen Shui-bian is a Taiwanese former politician and lawyer who served as the 5th president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which ended the Kuomintang's (KMT) 55 years of continuous rule in Taiwan. He is sometimes referred to by the nickname A-Bian (阿扁).
The pan-Blue coalition, pan-Blue force or pan-Blue groups is a political coalition in the Republic of China (Taiwan) consisting of the Kuomintang (KMT), People First Party (PFP), New Party (CNP), Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU), and Young China Party (YCP). The name comes from the party color of the Kuomintang.
The People First Party is a centrist or centre-right political party in Taiwan.
James Soong Chu-yu is a Taiwanese politician who is the founder and current Chairman of the People First Party. Soong was the first and only elected Governor of Taiwan Province from 1994 and 1998. He was a candidate in the 2000 presidential election, which he lost to Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is a political party in Taiwan which advocates Taiwan independence, and is affiliated with the Taiwanese localization movement. It was officially founded on 12 August 2001 and is considered part of the Pan-Green Coalition. Unlike the Democratic Progressive Party, its larger companion party in the Pan-Green Coalition, the TSU actively campaigns for the creation of a de jure Republic of Taiwan. The future of the party is in doubt after the 2016 elections as the party failed to secure enough votes to be eligible for state funding.
Lien Chan is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government from 1990 to 1993, Premier of the Republic of China from 1993 to 1997, Vice President of the Republic of China from 1996 to 2000, and was the Chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 2000 to 2005, apart from various ministerial posts he had also held.
Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 20 March 2004. A consultative referendum took place on the same day regarding relations with the People's Republic of China.
Annette Lu Hsiu-lien is a Taiwanese politician. A feminist active in the tangwai movement, she joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 1990, and was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1992. Subsequently, she served as Taoyuan County Magistrate between 1997 and 2000, and was the Vice President of Taiwan from 2000 to 2008, under President Chen Shui-bian. Lu announced her intentions to run for the presidency on 6 March 2007, but withdrew to support eventual DPP nominee Frank Hsieh. Lu ran again in 2012, but withdrew for a second time, ceding the nomination to DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen. She lost the party's Taipei mayoral nomination to Pasuya Yao in 2018, and stated that she would leave the party. However, by the time Lu announced in September 2019 that she would contest the 2020 presidential election on behalf of the Formosa Alliance, she was still a member of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Hsu Hsin-liang is a Taiwanese politician, formerly Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). He was a supporter of the Pan-Blue Coalition from 2000 to 2008 but then supported the DPP in the 2008 presidential election.
Wang Jin-pyng is a Taiwanese politician. He served as President of the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2016, which makes him Taiwan's longest-serving legislative speaker. Once a leading figure of the Kuomintang (KMT), Wang is considered to be soft-spoken and a conciliatory figure who has often brokered deals between the KMT and opposition DPP. Due to his longevity, experience and influence in political scene, he is a widely respected figure in Taiwanese politics. He was replaced by Democratic Progressive Party's Su Jia-chyuan as President of the Legislative Yuan after a decisive victory for the DPP in the 2016 election.
The 2004 Taiwanese legislative election was held on 11 December 2004. All 225 seats of the Legislative Yuan were up for election: 168 elected by single non-transferable vote, 41 elected through party-list Proportional representation, eight elected from overseas Chinese constituencies on the basis of the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties, eight elected by popular vote among the aboriginal populations. Members served three-year terms beginning on 1 February 2005, and ending 31 January 2008. The next term served four years.
This is a timeline of the Republic of China.
The 2001 Taiwanese legislative election was held on 1 December 2001. All 225 seats of the Legislative Yuan were up for election: 168 elected by popular vote, 41 elected on the basis of the proportional representation based of the nationwide votes received by participating political parties, eight elected from overseas Chinese constituencies on the basis of the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties, eight elected by popular vote among the Taiwanese aboriginal populations. Members served three year terms from February 1, 2002 to February 1, 2005.
The 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China were a series of groundbreaking visits by delegations of the Kuomintang (KMT) and their allied Pan-Blue Coalition to mainland China. They were hailed as the highest level of exchange between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang since Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing, China on August 28, 1945.
Local elections were held in Taiwan on 3 December 2005 to elect magistrates of counties and mayors of cities, councillors in county/city councils and mayors of townships and cities, known as the three-in-one elections, on 10 June 2006 to elect representatives in township/city councils and village chiefs, on 9 December 2006 to elect mayors and councillors of special municipalities, and on 30 December 2006 to elect village chiefs in Taipei City.
Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 14 January 2012. The election was held concurrently with legislative elections. It was the fifth direct election for the President of the Republic of China. Prior to 1996, the President was elected by the ROC's National Assembly and not directly by the people.
General elections were held in Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, on Saturday, 16 January 2016 to elect the 14th President and Vice President of the Republic of China, and all 113 members of the ninth Legislative Yuan:
Presidential elections were held in Taiwan on 16 January 2016. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen with her independent running mate Chen Chien-jen won over Eric Chu of the Kuomintang (KMT) and James Soong of the People First Party (PFP). Tsai became the first female president in Taiwan, as well as in the Chinese-speaking world.
Chen Horng-chi is a Taiwanese politician who served as a member National Assembly between 1992 and 1996, when he was seated to the Legislative Yuan. Shortly after stepping down from the legislature in 2002, Chen left the Kuomintang and joined the Taiwan Solidarity Union.