Chiang Kai-shek’s great-grandson won his race for mayor of Taipei, as Taiwan held local elections on Saturday that could shape the race to replace skeptical Chinese President Tsai Ing-wen. in a little over a year.
Chiang Wan-an, the late great-grandson Kuomintang – who fought and lost a civil war against Mao Zedong’s communists and is remembered by many Taiwanese for his repression – becomes the youngest person elected as mayor of Taipei at 43.
“Everyone, we did it!” he said in a brief speech to a crowd of thousands outside his campaign headquarters.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shih-chung earlier apologized to supporters at his campaign headquarters. Elections are President Tsai’s last major test PLR before his second and final term as president comes to an end and Taiwan chooses a successor in early 2024.
The opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, hopes gains in local races will help it recover from back-to-back defeats in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. KMT leads the DPP 50% to 41.8% in all city and county leadership races, according to the Central Election Commission, with more than 10 million votes counted. The KMT led four of the six mayoral races in the island’s largest cities, where some 70% of the population live. He entered the day with two of the spots.
Chiang Wan-an, the late great-grandson Kuomintang – who fought and lost a civil war against Mao Zedong’s communists and is remembered by many Taiwanese for his repression – becomes the youngest person elected as mayor of Taipei at 43.
“Everyone, we did it!” he said in a brief speech to a crowd of thousands outside his campaign headquarters.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shih-chung earlier apologized to supporters at his campaign headquarters. Elections are President Tsai’s last major test PLR before his second and final term as president comes to an end and Taiwan chooses a successor in early 2024.
The opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, hopes gains in local races will help it recover from back-to-back defeats in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. KMT leads the DPP 50% to 41.8% in all city and county leadership races, according to the Central Election Commission, with more than 10 million votes counted. The KMT led four of the six mayoral races in the island’s largest cities, where some 70% of the population live. He entered the day with two of the spots.
