Presidential election in the Republic of China (Taiwan) 1996

The 1996 presidential election in the Republic of China took place on March 23, 1996. It was the 9th election of a president and the first direct election of a president and vice-president in the history of the Republic of China . The incumbent and re-running President Lee Teng-hui of the Kuomintang won the election with 54% of the votes cast. The National Assembly was re-elected on the same day . The elections were also under the impression of massive military threatening gestures by the People's Republic of China , which carried out ballistic missile tests in Formosa Street shortly before the election .

background

In 1947 the last all-China election to the National Assembly took place. After that, in the Chinese civil war, the communists had taken power on the Chinese mainland and the national Chinese government led by the Kuomintang had fled to the island of Taiwan. The elected National Assembly remained in office as the Kuomintang maintained sole representation for all of China and took the position that the National Assembly could only be replaced by new all-China elections. The residents of Taiwan could only re-elect representatives from Taiwan Province in the elections scheduled for the following decades . De facto, this meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang.

However, with the increasing international weight of the People's Republic of China, the claim to sole representation for the whole of China became more and more unrealistic. In 1971 the People's Republic of China became a member of the United Nations and became a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council , while the Republic of China on Taiwan lost its permanent seat and membership in the United Nations. Under Deng Xiaoping , a steady economic upswing began in the People's Republic of China from the 1970s onwards under the auspices of a market economy.

There was also a rapid economic upswing in the Republic of China on Taiwan , one of the “ tiger states ”. This was accompanied by increasing liberalization from the 1980s under President Chiang Ching-kuo . In 1987 the martial law that had been in force since World War II was finally repealed. In 1986 the Democratic Progressive Party was founded as the first opposition party , while still illegally . After Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988, the previous Vice President Lee Teng-hui succeeded him in the presidency. This continued the democratic reforms. In 1991 the MPs who had been in office since 1947 were compelled by the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly to give up their mandates. A constitutional amendment came into force, which provided for a direct election of the President and Vice-President (instead of the previous election by the National Assembly).

Election campaign and candidates

At its party congress in August 1995, the Kuomintang nominated incumbent President Lee Teng-hui as its top candidate. He chose incumbent Prime Minister Lien Chan as a candidate for the post of Vice President. In the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) there were several competing candidates for candidacy. Finally, Peng Ming-min prevailed as the top candidate, who selected Frank Hsieh as a candidate for the vice-presidency. The former governor of Taiwan Province Lin Yang-kang, who also belongs to the KMT, lost the party’s internal election for the presidency and then ran as an independent candidate together with former Prime Minister Hau Pei-tsun as a vice-presidential candidate. Both were then expelled from the KMT on December 13, 1995 for behavior that was harmful to the party. The Xindang (CNP) declared its support for the two KMT renegades and withdrew its own candidate Wang Chien-hsuan on December 9, 1995. A fourth candidate in the election was Chen Li-an , the former president of the Control Yuan, along with vice-presidential candidate Wang Ching-feng , also two KMT dissidents.

• 

  Lee Teng-hui

• 

  Chen Li-an

• 

  Lin Yang-kang

• 

  Peng Ming-min (2014)

An important point of contention in the election campaign was the relationship with the People's Republic of China. Peng (DPP) rejected trade relations with the People's Republic of China as long as it did not accept the Republic of China as an equal negotiating partner. However, he also rejected an explicit declaration of independence on the part of Taiwan, since Taiwan was already de facto independent. From March 8 to March 15, about 1 to 2 weeks before the election date, the People's Republic of China began ballistic missile tests in the Taiwan Strait. The rockets were fired from mainland China and fell about 25 to 30 nautical miles from the important Taiwanese ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung , but already within the territorial waters claimed by Taiwan. More than half of Taiwanese foreign trade shipped by sea was handled in the two ports, which was severely hampered. International air traffic also had to be diverted in order not to get near the missile test area. The missile tests were seen as a blatant threat to Taiwan and an attempt by the People's Republic of China to influence the elections in their favor. In the end, the crisis was mainly defused by the fact that the United States under President Bill Clinton ordered the two aircraft carriers USS Nimitz (CVN-68) from the Persian Gulf and USS Independence (CV-62) from the Pacific together with an escort flotilla for Taiwan. The US intervention was welcomed by the KMT-led government as well as by the DPP opposition, but by the presidential candidate Lin Yang-kang, who campaigned for a strict one-China policy open to the People's Republic of China, as well as government officials Replaced by the People's Republic of China as foreign interference. Corruption was another campaign issue. The KMT government has been accused of corruption by all opposition parties. In particular, the Chen / Wang duo emphasized the need for an honest government based on moral values.

Results

The election went largely without incident and without irregularities.

Nationwide results

Graphic representation of the election result

Candidates (President and Vice)		Political party	Constituencies	be right	percent
	Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), Lien Chan (連戰)	Kuomintang	24	5,813,699	54.0%
	Peng Ming-min (彭明敏), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷)	DPP	0	2,274,586	21.1%
	Lin Yang-kang (林洋港), Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村)	More independent	1	1,603,790	14.9%
	Chen Li-an (陳履安), Wang Ching-feng (王清峰)	More independent	0	1,074,044	10.0%
total			25th	10,766,119	100.0%

Results by constituency

The following table shows the results in the 18 rural districts and seven urban districts or cities directly under the government. The winner's votes and percentage are each marked in red.

Constituency	Chen • Wang		Lee • Lien		Peng • Hsieh		Lin • Hau
	be right	%	be right	%	be right	%	be right	%
Taipei City (台北市)	165,541	11.89%	541.721	38.9%	347,564	21.90%	346.272	24.87%
Taipei County (台北 縣)	186,937	11.37%	793.718	48.28%	370.728	22.55%	292,541	17.79%
Keelung City (基隆市)	25,950	13.42%	97.223	50.27%	48,545	21.52%	35,798	18.6%
Yilan County (宜蘭 縣)	20,537	8.94%	126,405	54.92%	68,044	29.56%	15,154	6.58%
Taoyuan County (桃園 縣)	91,048	12.02%	423.198	55.85%	114.901	15.16%	128,607	16.97%
Hsinchu County (新竹 縣)	24,746	11.67%	140.321	66.2%	23,555	11.11%	23,342	11.01%
Hsinchu City (新竹市)	22.603	12.93%	93,812	53.65%	46.234	22.40%	30,155	17.25%
Miaoli County (苗栗 縣)	29,884	10.31%	202,593	69.87%	28,281	10.7%	26,459	9.12%
Taichung County (台中 縣)	71.030	10.01%	426,668	60.15%	115.034	16.22%	96,594	13.62%
Taichung City (台中市)	46,844	11.11%	195,865	46.45%	82,416	19.55%	96.509	22.89%
Changhua County (彰化 縣)	62,138	9.7%	407.820	63.63%	116.154	18.12%	54,776	8.55%
Nantou County (南投 縣)	14,552	5.31%	86,357	31.52%	45,556	16.63%	127,537	46.55%
Yunlin County (雲林 縣)	25,914	7.22%	237,871	66.29%	68,785	19.17%	26,247	7.31%
Chiayi County (嘉義 縣)	17,515	6.37%	180,709	65.7%	63.101	22.94%	13,716	4.99%
Chiayi City (嘉義 市)	12,761	9.9%	60,628	47.04%	42,984	33.35%	12,515	9.71%
Tainan County (台南 縣)	41,263	7.48%	347.825	63.05%	134,969	24.47%	27,590	5.0%
Tainan City (台南市)	39,058	10.97%	201,436	56.58%	84,929	23.85%	30,603	8.6%
Kaohsiung City (高雄市)	68.158	9.29%	371.391	50.62%	200,406	27.32%	93,691	12.77%
Kaohsiung County (高雄 縣)	47,790	7.64%	374.386	59.88%	151.943	24.3%	51,139	8.18%
Pingtung County (屏東 縣)	26,644	5.78%	289.812	62.91%	117.283	25.46%	26,902	5.84%
Hualien County (花蓮 縣)	14,568	8.91%	104,740	64.05%	18,383	11.24%	25,836	15.8%
Taitung County (台東縣)	8,160	7.52%	74,211	68.42%	14,506	13.37%	11,584	10.68%
Penghu County (澎湖縣)	4,170	10.29%	25,367	62.61%	8,070	19.92%	2,907	7.18%
Kinmen (金門 縣)	5,805	28.09%	8,401	40.65%	336	1.63%	6.123	29.63%
Matsu Islands (連江縣)	356	13.56%	1,221	46.51%	35	1.33%	1,013	38.59%

Voting cards

• 

  Constituency majorities in the election: Relative or absolute majority for Lee Teng-hui / Lien Chan Relative majority for Lin Yang-kang / Hau Pei-tsun
  
  

• 

  Results by municipalities

After the election

The attempt by the People's Republic of China to influence the election decision in its favor, ie against President Lee and against the DPP candidate Peng, was ultimately counterproductive. Election analysts suspected that President Lee was able to gain around 5% of the votes through the “state terrorism” of the People's Republic of China, so that he even achieved an absolute majority. The oldest and largest opposition party, the DPP, became the second strongest force, but lagged far behind the KMT and was unable to win even a relative majority in any of the electoral districts.

Literature and Sources

• Hsieh JF-s, Niou EMS: Taiwan's March 1996 elections. Electoral Studies 15 (4), November 1996, pp. 545-550 doi : 10.1016 / S0261-3794 (96) 80472-0

Web links

• Results at the Central Electoral Commission of Taiwan (Chinese)
• Robert S. Ross: The 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Confrontation: Coercion, Credibility, and Use of Force . In: International Security . tape 25 , no. 2 , 2000, pp. 87–123 (English, edu.sg [PDF; accessed April 6, 2011] PDF file).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Professor Peng is DPP is candidate for presidency . In: Taiwan Communiqué . No. 68 , October 1995, ISSN  1027-3999 , pp. 15-16 (English, pdf ).
2. ↑ 1995-- THE YEAR THAT WAS-- 1995. Taiwan Today, January 6, 1996, archived from the original on November 22, 2016 ; accessed on November 22, 2016 (English). 
3. ↑ Presidential Elections coming up. Taiwan Communiqué No. 69, January 1996, accessed November 22, 2016 . 
4. ^ Susan Yu: In bid for presidency, Control Yuan chief quits KMT. Taiwan Journal 舊 資料, August 25, 1995, archived from the original on November 22, 2016 ; accessed on November 22, 2016 (English).