Presidential election in the Republic of China (Taiwan) 2000

The election winner Chen Shui-bian (2005)

The 2000 presidential election in the Republic of China took place on March 18, 2000. It was the second direct election of a president and the tenth presidential election since 1947. Surprisingly, the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chen Shui-bian won the election along with his vice-presidential candidate Annette Lu . This marked the end of the 50 years of Kuomintang (KMT) rule in the Republic of China.

In the run-up to the election

In the run-up to the election there were several candidates for the candidacy in the ranks of the Kuomintang, on the one hand the incumbent Vice-President Lien Chan , the incumbent Prime Minister Vincent Siew and the governor of the province of Taiwan , James Soong . Although Soong, who is considered popular, ranked well ahead of his competitors in opinion polls, he missed the nomination at the KMT party congress and instead the incumbent Vice President Lien Chan, who appeared rather distant and detached, was nominated as a candidate. Vincent Siew was elected as a candidate for the vice-presidency. Soong then announced that he would run as an independent candidate in the election. As a result, he was expelled from the Kuomintang in November along with 21 declared supporters of his candidacy. Soong chose Chang Chau-hsiung as the Vice President candidate. Both Lien Chan and James Soong were not born in Taiwan, but in mainland China, and for reasons of proportionality and election tactics, they chose vice-presidential candidates who came from the island of Taiwan.

The lead candidate of the People's Democratic Party (DPP) was former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian, who elected Annette Lu, MP from Taoyuan County, as the vice-presidential candidate. During the election campaign for the 1996 presidential election , the DPP had pursued a radical course of independence and was then inferior to the KMT like a landslide. The DPP's program was then made much more moderate in this regard and the demand for an explicit declaration of independence from China was linked to the holding of a positive referendum. Former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang ran as an independent candidate after he was not nominated. Together with the vice-presidential candidate Josephine Chu , he campaigned for reunification with the People's Republic of China under the slogan one country, two systems .

Shortly before the election, politicians in the People's Republic of China tried to influence the outcome of the election in their favor by issuing warnings and threats in the event of an independence referendum. One of the DPP's main campaign issues was the fight against corruption. It was therefore water on the mill of the DPP election campaign strategists when James Soong came under public criticism for allegedly embezzling millions of public funds. It also had some effect when the well-respected President of Academia Sinica and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Yuan T. Lee publicly spoke out in favor of Chen Shui-bian.

• 

  Chen Shui-bian
  DPP candidate for president

• 

  Lien Chan
  candidate of KMT for president

• 

  James Soong is an
  individual candidate for President

Results

Nationwide results

Graphic representation of the majority ratios

The turnout was 82.69%, 122,278 votes were deemed invalid.

Candidates (President and Vice)		Political party	Constituencies	be right	percent
	Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Annette Lu (呂秀蓮)	DPP	10	4,977,737	39.3%
	James Soong (宋楚瑜), Chang Chau-hsiung (張昭雄)	Independent	15th	4,664,932	36.8%
	Lien Chan (連戰), Vincent Siew (蕭萬長)	Kuomintang	0	2,925,513	23.1%
	More candidates	Independent	0	96.211	0.8%
total			25th	12,786,671	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	Soong • Chang		Lien • Siew		Others		Chen • Lu
	be right	%	be right	%	be right	%	be right	%
Taipei City (台北市)	631,538	39.79%	347,564	21.90%	10,599	0.37%	597,465	37.64%
Taipei County (台北 県)	812.821	40.26%	451.707	22.37%	13,025	0.65%	741,659	36.73%
Keelung City (基隆市)	106.032	47.01%	48,545	21.52%	1,411	0.62%	69,555	30.84%
Yilan County (宜蘭 県)	86,549	33.05%	51,082	19.51%	1086	0.41%	123.157	47.30%
Taoyuan County (桃園 県)	413,370	43.83%	208,881	22.15%	21,721	2.3%	299.120	31.72%
Hsinchu County (新竹 県)	128,231	51.58%	51,442	20.69%	7,402	2.97%	61,533	24.25%
Hsinchu City (新竹市)	88,412	42.83%	46.234	22.40%	2,038	0.99%	69,760	33.97%
Miaoli County (苗栗 県)	160,533	49.54%	71,798	22.20%	4,330	1.34%	86,707	26.81%
Taichung County (台中 県)	318,499	38.10%	206,832	24.74%	5,480	0.65%	305.219	36.51%
Taichung City (台中市)	217,486	41.37%	111.391	21.19%	3,079	0.59%	193,796	35.86%
Changhua County (彰化 県)	251.310	33.71%	191,685	25.71%	3,881	0.52%	298,571	40.05%
Nantou County (南投 県)	144,863	46.94%	56.025	18.15%	1,309	0.43%	106,440	34.49%
Yunlin County (雲林 県)	114.188	27.70%	102.177	24.78%	2,205	0.54%	193,715	45.99%
Chiayi County (嘉義 県)	85,890	26.98%	73,409	23.06%	1,481	0.47%	157,512	49.94%
Chiayi City (嘉義 市)	43,773	29.34%	34,670	23.24%	617	0.43%	70.124	47.01%
Tainan County (台南 県)	136.217	21.10%	159,443	24.70%	2,746	0.43%	347.210	53.78%
Tainan City (台南市)	114,299	27.53%	107,679	25.93%	1,988	0.44%	191.261	45.06%
Kaohsiung City (高雄市)	259.023	29.78%	208,544	23.97%	3,980	0.46%	398.381	45.79%
Kaohsiung County (高雄 県)	206,616	28.43%	174.021	23.95%	3,502	0.48%	342,553	47.14%
Pingtung County (屏東 県)	131,371	25.48%	142.934	27.73%	2,631	0.51%	238,572	45.28%
Hualien County (花蓮 県)	109,962	58.81%	36,042	19.28%	930	0.49%	40,044	21.24%
Taitung County (台 東 県)	63,913	52.78%	28,659	23.66%	430	0.35%	28.102	23.20%
Penghu County (澎湖 県)	17,723	39.55%	10,418	23.25%	183	0.41%	16,487	36.79%
Kinmen (金門 県)	19,991	81.81%	3,543	14.50%	142	0.58%	759	3.11%
Matsu Islands (連 江 県)	2,362	73.31%	787	24.43%	15th	0.47%	58	1.80%

Voting cards

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  Constituency majorities in the election Relative or absolute majority for James Soong / Chang Chau-hsiung Relative or absolute majority for Chen Shui-bien / Annette Lu
  
  

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  Majorities according to urban and rural communities

After the election

The election result came as a surprise to many. Most election observers had expected the popular James Soong to win, but apparently his financial scandal, which became public shortly before the election, had cost him many votes. The undisguised threats by mainland China politicians had also had the opposite effect, driving voters into the arms of independence supporters. After the election, there were protests by KMT supporters. It was widespread among KMT supporters that the former KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui secretly supported Chen Shui-bien's candidacy and thus contributed to the failure. Lee was attacked by KMT supporters, besieged in his office and finally resigned on March 24, 2000 from the office of KMT party chairman. In December 2000, he was expelled from the party. Thereupon, Lee Teng-hui founded his own party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU, Chinese  臺灣 團結 聯盟 , Pinyin Táiwān Tuánjié Liánméng , English Taiwan Solidarity Union ), which, contrary to the KMT line, advocates radical independence of Taiwan from China. His opponents in the KMT saw their suspicion of disloyalty confirmed by this development. After the election, James Soong also founded a new party, the Qinmindang ( Chinese  親民 黨 , English People First Party , "People's party"), which, however, was very similar in its political program to the Kuomintang.

Literature and Sources

• JA Robinson, DA Brown: Taiwan's 2000 Presidential Election. In: Orbis. 44 (4), 2000, pp. 599-613. doi: 10.1016 / S0030-4387 (00) 00046-6
• E. Nioua, P. Paolino: The rise of the opposition party in Taiwan: explaining Chen Shui-bian's victory in the 2000 Presidential election. In: Electoral Studies. 22 (4), 2003, pp. 721-740. doi: 10.1016 / S0261-3794 (02) 00010-0

Web links

• Results at the Central Electoral Commission of Taiwan (Chinese)