KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih taking a wefie with supporters at a market in Tainan on Jan 8. - ST
TAINAN: Cab driver Wang Yong-li from Taiwan’s oldest city Tainan is a bit hesitant when asked who he would be voting for in the Jan 13 presidential elections.
“The candidate I vote for would not win anyway,” he said.
Then, after a pause, the 54-year-old lets on that he supports the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT).
If Wang sounds pessimistic, it is because Tainan is not only a stronghold of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) but also where DPP presidential candidate Lai Ching-te, 64, made his mark as a politician, first as a lawmaker representing the city and then as mayor of the southern metropolis of about 1.8 million people.
A popular travel destination famous for its ancient fortresses and local snacks, Tainan was founded by the Dutch in 1624 and was the capital of Taiwan until 1887.
The coastal city, dominated by minnan-speaking Taiwanese whose ancestors had moved there from China’s southern Fujian province as early as the 1600s, has traditionally supported the pro-independence DPP rather than the China-friendly KMT.
At the 2020 presidential election, nearly 68 per cent in Tainan voted for the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate, Lai, who won with a record 8.17 million votes or 57.1 per cent of the vote.
But the odds have not stopped Lai’s presidential race rivals – Hou Yu-ih of KMT and Dr Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) – from making incursions into the city in an attempt to snatch votes from Lai’s powerbase.
On Jan 8, Hou, 66, went around two districts in the city in a motorcade and also visited temples and an evening market; Dr Ko, 64, spent two days this week campaigning, drawing a snaking queue of young people lining up around a night market waiting to take a picture with him.
Tainan might not be the iron-clad “warehouse of votes” for the DPP as people assume it to be, said political analyst Shih Cheng-feng, who retired from Taiwan’s National Dong Hwa University in 2023.
While Lai made his start in Tainan as a politician, local corruption scandals such as one involving the illegal dumping of industrial waste have tarnished the reputation of the DPP in Tainan, he told The Straits Times.
The current DPP Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che won by a margin of less than 5 percentage points over his KMT rival in the 2022 municipal elections, Dr Shih noted.
The DPP won only five out of 21 city mayor and county chief seats, while the KMT won 13, the TPP one with the remaining two won by independents.
This is perhaps why Lai, considered the favourite to win the presidential election according to opinion polls, is also stepping up campaigning in the city.
Embarking on a motorcade tour that would take him from the south of Taiwan to the north, he was in Tainan on Jan 8 to greet voters and is scheduled to appear at a rally there on Jan 12, the eve of the elections.
DPP campaign staff told Taiwanese media that there is a risk supporters might feel that Mr Lai and the DPP candidates are sure to win and thus decide not to vote. One DPP legislative candidate, for example, is a shoo-in as his KMT rival has been disqualified.
Dr Shih said the DPP hopes that votes from the south would make up for shortfall in votes in the north, where its support levels are weaker. “But what if others come here to snatch their votes?”
The KMT team certainly had votes in mind as Hou walked around a meat and vegetable market on the afternoon of Jan 8, shaking hands and taking photos with hawkers and shoppers.
“Hou Yu-ih in person, Hou Yu-ih in person,” party volunteer Hong Yu-feng, 75, repeated in the minnan dialect on a loudhailer. She also sang his praises as someone who could relate well to the stall-owners as he is the son of a pork vendor.
Huang Hui-mei, 55, a braised foods stall vendor, says she supports Hou, a former police chief with a distinguished career, as he stands for law and security. “I think he will help to clamp down on scams,” she added.
But not all at the market, where stalls offer items from meat to eggs and chestnuts, looked happy to see Hou, with some giving him the cold shoulder.
One woman even scowled and shouted, “Crazy!” in the direction of Hou before getting onto her scooter parked outside the market and driving off.
On Jan 8, all three presidential candidates campaigned in the city, with the motorcades of Lai and Dr Ko reportedly passing by each other at one point.
Many Tainan residents, proud to see their former mayor, lined up along the streets and greeted Lai with shouts of “Hello President!”
Tainan resident Chang Hui-hsiung, 61, who runs a student hostel and other properties, says he will vote for Lai and the DPP.
“From his years in politics, you can see that he is a person of good character. I trust him more than I trust the two other candidates.”
Residents say Lai has done well in helping to improve infrastructure and bringing investments into Tainan, which became a special municipal city in 2010.
Lai, who served as Tainan Mayor from 2010 to 2017, was so popular that he was re-elected in 2014 with 72.9 per cent of the vote – the highest in the city’s history.
Still, with the 2024 presidential race more competitive than the 2020 contest, Mr Lai can expect his share of the votes to be lower.
Opinion polls have found that young voters tend to prefer Dr Ko, which has promised to provide an alternative to the DPP and KMT, Taiwan’s two main parties.
At a mini-rally for Dr Ko on the night of Jan 8, a crowd of about 2,000, many of them young people, spilled out of the grounds of Tainan’s Fengshan Temple into the adjacent lanes and alleys.
“Tainan does not belong exclusively to the DPP!” the rally’s host declared as the crowd cheered and waved white and light blue flags – the TPP’s colours. Outside the temple, souvenir stands offered T-shirts, caps, hoodies, light-sabres and even balloons with hand-drawn caricatures of Dr Ko.
Lin Chian-te, 39, who works in the service industry, said most people in Tainan support Lai as “his image is good” but he felt that Mr Lai did not have much to show for as mayor.
Referring to Dr Ko’s nickname, he said: “I have decided to vote for Ah Pek (“uncle”) as he is not corrupt.” - The Straits Times/ANN
