九合一判馬「政治死刑」: 胡志強

choi

(1) Mr Jason HU 胡志強 lost re-election at City of Taichung, after thirteen years there. Due to his popularity there, he was considered a likely contender to KMT's 2016 nomination for president, though President Ma Ying-jeou is said to favor vice president and a KMT vice chariman WU Den-yih 吳敦義.   

My comment:
(a) It is 8 pm, Sunday (Nov 30). Apple daily (Taiwan) reported 22 hours ago that Ma Ying-jeou would step down from his chairmanship of KMT, so did United Daily News and China Times (both five hours ago) as well as Liberty Times (3 hours ago),
(b) Mr Hu may be trying to divert attention to his failure. However, what is important is the heavy weights of KMT dare to speak up against Ma.
(c) The next wave of election is the five seats of 立法委員補選, to be held in January or February, 2015. If Ma is perceived as not eager to relinquish power, KMT's chance in the by-election 補選 will be doomed. Then he will be forced to make even more concession. As of now, some KMT members even wants 虛位總統: KMT legislators 立法委員 wants a say in premier nomination and composition of the cabinet, though approval by the Legislature is not needed under the revised constitution.

choi

(2) 103年地方公職人員選舉, as announced by Central Election Commission (Taiwan) 中央選舉委員會 (which is equivalent to secretary of state in a STATE (as opposed to the United States) and city's election department combined).
(a) 新北市 市長選舉: 朱立倫 (incumbent since 2010; KMT) defeates 游錫堃 (former primier under Chen Shui-bian; DPP), 50.06% to 48.78%.

It was thought that without Ma's favoritism (see (1)), Eric CHU 朱立倫 would be most likely be the 2016 KMT nominee for president, though in June, 2014 he had promised 一定做滿4年 if he should win re-election. Now, the slim margin of victory puts the prospect in serious doubt.
(b) 桃園市 市長選舉: 鄭文燦 of DPP trounces 吳志揚 of KMT (incumbent 桃園縣長 since 2009 and son of former KMT chairman and former 桃園縣長 吳伯雄), 51.00% to 47.97%.
www.cec.gov.tw/zh_TW/TC/n300000000000000.html
(桃園縣將於2014年12月25日將升格為直轄市. Jumping the gun, the Central Election Commission of Taiwan calls it 桃園市.)
(c) 臺中市 市長選舉: 林佳龍 (DPP; 57.06%) thrashed 胡志強 (KMT; 42.94%). This really takes Hu out of presidential race.
(d) 嘉義縣 縣長選舉: "黃宏成台灣阿成世界偉人" (無黨籍) gets 2.82% of the votes.
www.cec.gov.tw/zh_TW/TC/n706000000000000.html