World News | Taiwan votes to lower voting age, mayor, city council

TAIPEI, Nov. 26 (AP) — Voters will head to polling stations across Taiwan Saturday in closely watched local elections that will determine the strength of the island’s major political parties ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Taiwanese citizens will elect mayors, city councilors and other local leaders in all 13 counties and nine cities.

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There is also a referendum to lower the voting age from 20 to 18. Voting opens at 8:00 am (0000 GMT) on Saturday.

While international observers and the ruling party have tried to link the election to a long-term existential threat to Taiwan’s neighbor, many local experts don’t think China will play much this time around.

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“The international community has raised the stakes too high. They have raised local elections to the international level, and Taiwan’s survival,” said Wang Yeli, a political science professor at National Taiwan University.

In an elementary school in New Taipei City, near the capital Taipei, voters young and old braved the rain to cast their votes early.

Yu Meizhu, 60, said she was here to vote for the incumbent mayor, Hou Youyi, who is running for re-election.

“I think he is doing a good job, so I want to continue to support him. I believe in him and believe that he can improve our environment and transportation infrastructure in New Taipei City.”

President Tsai Ing-wen also came out to vote early Saturday morning, surprising many voters as her security guards and entourage swept through the school.

She then called on all Taiwanese people to vote.

Tsai Ing-wen, who is also the chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, put forward the slogan of “anti-China protection Taiwan” many times during the campaign.

But DPP candidate Chen Shih-chung, who is running for mayor of Taipei, raised the issue of the Communist threat only a few times before quickly turning back to local issues because there was little interest, experts said.

During the campaign, there was little mention of China’s massive military exercises against Taiwan in August in response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“So I think if you can’t even bring this up in Taipei,” Wang said.

“You don’t even need to think about being in a southern city.”

Instead, the campaign is firmly local: air pollution in downtown Taichung, traffic congestion in Nangang, Taipei’s tech hub, and the island’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy, which left the island in short supply during last year’s outbreak.

Candidates have a packed public schedule in the final week before the election. Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party held a huge parade in Taipei on Sunday, filled with dancers in dinosaur costumes and performers from different countries.

KMT mayoral candidate Jiang Wan’an canvassed votes at a hardware market, while independent candidate Huang Wei’an visited a market lunch stall. All three stopped at Taipei’s famous night market.

The question is how the island’s two main political parties — the KMT and the incumbent DPP — will fare.

Because Tsai Ing-wen and KMT chairman Zhu Lizhu are hand-picked candidates, their performance will affect their status in the party and the strength of the party in the next two years.

“If the DPP loses many county seats, then their ability to govern will face a very big challenge,” said You Yinglong, chairman of the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, which conducts regular public surveys on political issues.

You said that the election results to some extent also reflected the public’s attitude towards the performance of the ruling party in the past two years.

Observers are also watching to see whether outgoing Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe’s Taiwan People’s Party candidate will win the mayoral seat.

Analysts say Ke Wengui’s 2024 presidential bid will be affected by his party’s political performance on Saturday.

For the past few weeks, Ke has been campaigning alongside his deputy, Mr Huang, an independent mayoral candidate.

Food stand owner Hian Fuh Mei said he supported Huang.

“We want to see someone who is international,” he said.

“If you look at Singapore, we were better than Singapore before, but we have fallen behind. I hope we can change direction.”

Others were more indifferent to the local race.

“From a policy standpoint, it feels like everyone is pretty much the same,” said Sean Tai, 26, a hardware store employee.

Dai declined to say who he voted for, but hoped someone would raise Taipei’s profile and bring better economic prospects while maintaining the status quo with China. “We don’t want to be completely blocked. I really want Taiwan to be seen internationally,” he said. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)