Elections reveal concerning trendBy Shih Fang-long 施芳瓏Last month’s local election results were a repeat of the 2018 elections: the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) made big wins, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered ignominious defeats. On closer analysis, given the similarity in the results, we can see a new trend emerging: Taiwanese vote differently in presidential elections than in local ones. In the four years since the KMT’s 2018 local elections victories, Beijing has worked hard to make connections with and engage in exchanges with KMT local government heads. It needs to do so without using it as a slogan to manipulate elections, even if it means losing votes. Almost all of the local KMT leaders involved in corruption and the criminal underworld were elected, showing that control over local politics is wielded by criminals.
