2
in a tightly contested two-ticket election. The KMT did bounce back later that year
during the December 2004 legislative elections. The pan-blue alliance – comprising the
KMT and Soong’s splinter party, the People’s First Party (PFP) – won a combined 114
seats and about 51% of the popular vote, outpolling the governing DPP, which gained 89
seats and 40% of the vote. However, a less sanguine interpretation of the results, at least
from the KMT’s perspective, would have to emphasize the fact that the former ruling
party and its slate of candidates gained only 80 seats and 36% of the vote, a result still
short of the DPP’s electoral performance.
Table 1: Election Results, 2000-2004 [legislative seat totals in parenthesis]
Election
Pan-blue
Pan-green
KMT
PFP
DPP
TSU
2000 Presidential
23.1%
36.8%
39.3%
--
2001 Legislative
31% (68)
20% (46)
37% (87)
9% (13)
2004 Presidential
49%
--
51%
--
2004 Legislative
36% (80)
15% (34)
40% (89)
8% (12)
That the KMT was eventually defeated at the polls is a boon to Taiwan’s ongoing
democratic deepening. Taiwan not only experienced a peaceful transformation from
authoritarian rule to the institutionalization of democratic rules of the game, the former
dominant party transferred power in a peaceful manner to the opposition DPP. The DPP
itself evolved from being a grassroots social movement during the 1970s into an effective
electorally-driven organization. To be sure, the DPP has been able to maintain its hold of
the presidency through two electoral cycles (2000 and 2004) and it continues to fare
strongly in legislative, assembly and local elections. In short, Taiwan’s is a democracy
that, despite periodic hiccups along the way, has been working.
Much has already been written on the rise of the DPP and its changing role in
Taiwan’s young democracy, from initially being a marginal opposition party and later a
1
Election results do not include vote tallies for independent candidates and marginal parties.
Convention