# 1997–98 Taiwanese local elections

Local elections of Taiwan were held in 1997 and 1998 to elect magistrates of counties and mayors of cities on 29 November 1997, and mayors and councillors of special municipalities on 5 December 1998.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won in the 1997 election, controlling majority of mayors/magistrates across the country and winning more popular votes than the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) for the first time. While the two polls were seen as confidence votes of President Lee Teng-hui, they marked the beginning of the historic peaceful transition of power which would occur in 2000.

## Counties and cities

During the election rally, President Lee endorsed Kuomintang candidate Kente Chen in Taoyuan magisterial election. Lee, who is also chairman of the Kuomintang, claimed he has been a registered voter in Taoyuan for years instead of Taipei. It was later rebuked by Chen Shui-bian, mayor of Taipei, that he was still registered as Taipei resident. Chen further slammed Lee as "senile" for not knowing his residence, suggesting Lee should get an elderly chain so not to get lost. Kuomintang seniors in response denounced Chen's comments.
The DPP successfully flipped in six counties/cities, including Keelung City, Hsinchu City, Taichung City, Taichung County, Tainan City, and Pingtung County, but defeated in Penghu County. Incumbent magistrate of Miaoli County from the KMT was defeated by independent candidate.
Turnout of the election is 65.92%, with 7,784,908 voting out of 11,809,277 registered electorates.
Magistrate of Taipei :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Su Tseng-chang | 571,658 | 40.67% |
| Kuomintang | Hsieh Shen-shan | 543,516 | 38.67% |
| Independent | Lin Chih-chia | 154,590 | 11.00% |
| Independent | 廖學廣 | 70,619 | 5.02% |
| New | 楊泰順 | 32,902 | 2.34% |
| Independent | Stella Chou | 32,373 | 2.30% |
Mayor of Keelung City :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Lee Chin-yung | 73,398 | 42.75% |
| Kuomintang | Liu Wen-hsiung | 65,176 | 37.97% |
| Independent | Hsu Tsai-li | 33,099 | 19.28% |
Magistrate of Yilan County :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | DPP | Liu Shou-cheng | 122,114 | 53.83% |
| | Kuomintang | Liao Feng-teh | 104,744 | 46.17% |
Magistrate of Taoyuan County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Annette Lu | 375,500 | 56.20% |
| Kuomintang | Kente Chen | 286,993 | 42.96% |
| Social Reform Party | 徐運德 | 5,619 | 0.84% |
Magistrate of Hsinchu County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Lin Kuang-hua | 70,879 | 36.12% |
| Kuomintang | Cheng Yung-chin | 64,551 | 32.89% |
| Independent | Chiu Ching-chun | 59,393 | 30.26% |
| Independent | 徐能安 | 1,424 | 0.73% |
Mayor of Hsinchu City :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | James Tsai | 81,328 | 56.11% |
| Kuomintang | 林志成 | 62,017 | 42.79% |
| Independent | 王少泉 | 1,593 | 1.10% |
Magistrate of Miaoli County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Independent | Fu Hsueh-peng | 153,528 | 54.80% |
| Kuomintang | 何智輝 | 99,109 | 35.37% |
| New | 黃達業 | 15,871 | 5.66% |
| DPP | 徐進榮 | 11,678 | 4.17% |
Magistrate of Taichung County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Liao Yung-lai | 223,222 | 37.60% |
| Kuomintang | Kuo Jung-cheng | 173,667 | 29.26% |
| Kuomintang | Shyu Jong-shyong | 144,427 | 24.33% |
| Independent | Liu Chuan-chung | 35,533 | 5.99% |
| Independent | 陳欽隆 | 10,804 | 1.82% |
| Independence | 錢文南 | 5,950 | 1.00% |
Mayor of Taichung City :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Chang Wen-ying | 179,461 | 49.57% |
| Kuomintang | 洪昭男 | 149,438 | 41.28% |
| New | 宋艾克 | 26,515 | 7.32% |
| Independence | 鄭邦鎮 | 6,622 | 1.83% |
Magistrate of Changhua County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Kuomintang | 阮剛猛 | 290,335 | 49.56% |
| DPP | Wong Chin-chu | 285,058 | 48.66% |
| Independent | 張榮昌 | 10,443 | 1.78% |
Magistrate of Nantou County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Independent | Peng Pai-hsien | 78,690 | 31.61% |
| DPP | Lin Tsung-nan | 76,689 | 30.80% |
| Kuomintang | 許惠祐 | 74,966 | 30.11% |
| New | Chen Cheng-sheng | 18,066 | 7.26% |
| Independent | 吳清江 | 559 | 0.22% |
Magistrate of Yunlin County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Kuomintang | 蘇文雄 | 125,376 | 34.93% |
| Independent | 張榮味 | 122,166 | 34.04% |
| DPP | 廖大林 | 104,499 | 29.11% |
| Independent | 歐明憲 | 6,882 | 1.92% |
Magistrate of Chiayi County :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Kuomintang | 李雅景 | 136,161 | 53.26% |
| | DPP | 何嘉榮 | 119,499 | 46.74% |
Mayor of Chiayi City :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Independent | Chang Po-ya | 58,544 | 50.23% |
| Kuomintang | 江義雄 | 49,551 | 42.52% |
| DPP | 蔡鴻章 | 6,350 | 5.45% |
| Independence | 臧汀生 | 2,103 | 1.80% |
Magistrate of Tainan County :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | DPP | Mark Chen | 328,641 | 65.73% |
| | Kuomintang | 洪玉欽 | 171,357 | 34.27% |
Mayor of Tainan City :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | George Chang | 116,145 | 35.75% |
| Kuomintang | 林南生 | 68,124 | 20.97% |
| Independent | Hsu Tain-tsair | 64,228 | 19.77% |
| Kuomintang | 陳榮盛 | 57,854 | 17.81% |
| Independent | 林壽宏 | 9,097 | 2.80% |
| New | 高家俊 | 4,737 | 1.46% |
| Independent | 方金海 | 4,699 | 1.45% |
Magistrate of Kaohsiung County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Yu Cheng-hsien | 271,989 | 51.74% |
| Kuomintang | 黃鴻都 | 234,960 | 44.69% |
| Independent | 鄭德耀 | 10,575 | 2.01% |
| Independent | 林景元 | 8,201 | 1.56% |
Magistrate of Pingtung County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPP | Su Jia-chyuan | 227,506 | 55.42% |
| Kuomintang | Tseng Yung-chuan | 170,154 | 41.45% |
| Independent | 李景雯 | 12,867 | 3.13% |
Magistrate of Taitung County :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Kuomintang | Chen Chien-nien | 48,365 | 47.64% |
| Independent | Hsu Ching-yuan | 47,340 | 46.63% |
| DPP | Huang Chao-hui | 5,818 | 5.73% |
Magistrate of Hualian County :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Kuomintang | Wang Ching-feng | 72,456 | 56.76% |
| | DPP | 游盈隆 | 55,194 | 43.24% |
Magistrate of Penghu County :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Kuomintang | Lai Feng-wei | 20,946 | 57.53% |
| | DPP | 許丕龍 | 15,194 | 42.47% |

## Special municipalities

Elections for mayors and councillors of special municipalities Taipei and Kaohsiung were held on 5 December 1998. The nail-biting election resulted in both incumbents defeated with a narrow margin, including an unexpected victory for the DPP in Kaohsiung.

### Taipei

Chen Shui-bian of the DPP seek a second four-year term with a high popularity of 80%, while the KMT nominated Ma Ying-jeou, ex-Minister of Justice who earlier declined to run in the mayoral election. Ma eventually beat Chen by around 0.6% of votes. Analysts believed tactical voting by supporters of New Party contributed to the KMT's win, in addition to the discontent with Chen's aggressive policies.
1998 Taipei mayoral election :
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| | Ma Ying-jeou | Kuomintang | 766,377 | 51.13 |
| | Chen Shui-bian | Democratic Progressive Party | 688,072 | 45.91 |
| | Wang Chien-shien | New Party | 44,452 | 2.97 |
| Total | Total | Total | 1,498,901 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,498,901 | 99.16 |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 12,734 | 0.84 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 1,511,635 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,868,860 | 80.89 |
1998 Taipei City Council election :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
| | Kuomintang | 589,907 | 40.08 | 23 | +3 |
| | Democratic Progressive Party | 455,613 | 30.96 | 19 | +4 |
| | New Party | 273,195 | 18.56 | 9 | -2 |
| | New Nation Alliance | 27,282 | 1.85 | 0 | – |
| | Green Party Taiwan | 22,274 | 1.51 | 0 | – |
| | Taiwan Independence Party | 9,633 | 0.65 | 0 | – |
| | Chinese Woman's Party | 923 | 0.06 | 0 | – |
| | Independents | 92,966 | 6.32 | 1 | -5 |
| Total | Total | 1,471,793 | 100.00 | 52 | – |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,471,793 | 97.61 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 36,051 | 2.39 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 1,507,844 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,864,314 | 80.88 | | |

### Kaohsiung

Following the defeat in vice-presidential election, Frank Hsieh of the DPP started considering running in Kaohsiung mayoral election. In 1997, Chen Che-nan, Hsieh's party colleague decided not to run against Hsieh in the party primary for the Kaohsiung poll, reportedly after an intervention by Taipei Mayor Chen who later promoted him as secretary-general of Taipei Government.
On the other hand, incumbent Wu Den-yih from the KMT faced small-scale rebellion from local party branch after former Kaohsiung mayor Wang Yu-yun criticised Wu for being ungrateful. In the run-up of the election, an ex-secretary of Wu published a recording tape, claiming Wu had an affairs with a reporter. Despite found to be fake after the election, the incident nevertheless damaged Wu's popularity.
During the campaign, Wu attacked Hsieh for "inhumane" after he agreed to be defence attorney for the murderer of Pai Hsiao-yen, hoping to persuade his surrender. The personal attack was said to have further pushed for Hsieh's victory.
1998 Kaohsiung mayoral election :
| Candidate | Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| | Frank Hsieh | Democratic Progressive Party | 387,797 | 48.71 |
| | Wu Den-yih | Kuomintang | 383,232 | 48.13 |
| | Cheng Te-yao | Independent | 18,699 | 2.35 |
| | Wu Chien-kuo | New Party | 6,457 | 0.81 |
| Total | Total | Total | 796,185 | 100.00 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | Valid votes | 796,185 | 98.54 |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 11,811 | 1.46 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 807,996 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,004,872 | 80.41 |
1998 Kaohsiung City Council election :
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
| | Kuomintang | 357,163 | 45.18 | 25 | +2 |
| | Democratic Progressive Party | 211,954 | 26.81 | 9 | -2 |
| | New Party | 30,363 | 3.84 | 1 | -1 |
| | Taiwan Independence Party | 14,707 | 1.86 | 0 | – |
| | Independents | 176,308 | 22.30 | 9 | +1 |
| Total | Total | 790,495 | 100.00 | 44 | – |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 790,495 | 98.02 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 15,996 | 1.98 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 806,491 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 1,002,480 | 80.45 | | |