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Taiwan elections 2020
ChinaPolitics

Where to for the KMT after Han Kuo-yu’s failed bid for Taiwan president?

  • Kuomintang leaders step down after sobering loss, promising to take the result ‘very seriously’
  • The party must also find a way to reach out to younger voters and bring in new people, analysts say

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The KMT campaign was undermined by divisions within the party, observers say. Photo: Bloomberg
Sarah Zhengin Beijing
Uncertainty hangs over the political future of Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu and the embattled Kuomintang (KMT) party after their heavy losses in Taiwan’s election over the weekend, analysts said.
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Han, from the mainland-friendly KMT, lost the presidency by a 20-point margin to incumbent Tsai Ing-wen, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on Saturday.

Tsai gained a record-breaking 8 million votes – nearly 3 million more than Han – in results seen as a repudiation of closer ties with Beijing as well as Han as a candidate.

The KMT also failed to break the DPP’s hold on the island’s legislature, securing just 38 of the 113 seats compared to the DPP’s 61. Taiwan’s electorate turned out in great numbers to give the DPP the legislative majority over the KMT, with turnout at 74.9 per cent compared to only 66 per cent.

Observers said Han – who will return to work on Monday as mayor of the former DPP stronghold of Kaohsiung – faces a recall campaign against him for “abandoning” the southern city to run for president.

Han won Kaohsiung in a landslide in November 2018 to become the city’s first KMT mayor in nearly two decades. But on Saturday, he managed just 34.6 per cent of the votes in the city compared to Tsai’s 62.2 per cent, one of the worst results for him out of Taiwan’s 22 primary administrative regions.

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“Since the people of the Republic of China (ROC) have made their decision, as a candidate I can only accept the result,” Han said in Kaohsiung to grim-faced supporters, using the official name for Taiwan. “I can only say that I have not worked hard enough and have let you all down.”

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