Incumbent Kuomintang (KMT) Hsinchu County Magistrate Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) declared victory in his reelection bid Saturday against his nearest rival Chou Chiang-chieh (周江杰) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Yang declared victory at around 7 p.m.
Yang finished with 163,662 votes, or 63.36 percent of the total, with Chou receiving 83,683 votes, or 32.4 percent, according to figures from the Central Election Commission (CEC).
During the campaign period, the KMT had high hopes in Hsinchu County — home to the largest ethnic Hakka population in Taiwan — setting its sights on not only the magistrate seat but also the 13 township chief seats in the northern county.
The 71-year-old Yang, who worked as a civil servant for 30 years prior to entering politics, was considered a near shoo-in for this year’s race. With his victory, the KMT will maintain its dominance for another four years in a county it has held since 2001.
As the incumbent magistrate, Yang was seen as having an advantage over his relatively unknown challengers, and his administrative achievements in the county over the past four years were recognized by voters, according to analysts.
He ran a campaign that focused on continued efforts to reduce the county government’s debts, making Hsinchu a technology hub, improving the welfare of senior citizens and local farmers, and establishing a national cultural exchange center for the ethnic Hakka group.
Hsinchu has the largest Hakka population in Taiwan, with the ethnic group making up 67.8 percent of the county’s total 570,000 population, official data shows.
Meanwhile, according to the Hsinchu County government, it repaid 63.02 percent of its debts, or NT$13.58 billion (US$438.85 million), during Yang’s first four-year term in office.
Yang was first elected as head of the Hsinchu County government in 2018, when he scored a surprise win over Minkuotang Chairperson Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) and the DPP’s Cheng Chao-feng (鄭朝方), after serving two years as deputy magistrate.
His 42-year-old challenger Chou, who heads the national Department of Hakka Affairs, opted to campaign on foot in Hsinchu’s 13 townships, instead of going on motorcades.
Elected to the Hsinchu County Council in 2014 as a Green Party Taiwan candidate, Chou switched to the DPP in 2018.
He resigned from the County Council in 2017, when it approved a KMT proposal to lower the tax rate for residential properties not being used by the owners, one year after it had implemented a rate hike.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel