Now the party is an established fixture on the political scene, though still far smaller than the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Active support by the TPP could boost KMT candidates by a few percentage points, which could be crucial in close races. In theory, also deciding who the Yilan and Chiayi City candidates are by polling would make sense. However, the big parties have long talent pipelines, and run candidates that have been vetted, trained and are embedded in their parties. Donovan’s Deep Dives is a regular column by Courtney Donovan Smith (石東文) who writes in-depth analysis on everything about Taiwan’s political scene and geopolitics.

Source: Taipei Times February 25, 2026 17:14 UTC