Voters headed to the polls across Taiwan on Saturday in a closely watched local election that will determine the strength of the island's major political parties ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Taiwanese citizens will be picking their mayors, city council members and other local leaders in all 13 counties and the six major cities. There's also a referendum to lower the voting age from 20 to 18. Polls opened at 8 a.m. Saturday.
President Tsai Ing-wen, who also serves as the chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has spoken out many times about "opposing China and defending Taiwan" in the course of campaigning. But the DPP's candidate Chen Shih-chung, who was running for mayor in Taipei, only raised the issue of the Communist Party's threat a few times before he quickly switched back to local issues as there was little interest, experts said.
Instead, campaigns resolutely focused on the local: air pollution in the central city of Taichung, traffic snarls in Taipei's tech hub Nangang, and the island's COVID-19 vaccine purchasing strategies, which had left the island in short supply during an outbreak last year. "If the DPP loses many county seats, then their ability to rule will face a very strong challenge," said You Ying-lung, chair at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation that regularly conducts public surveys on political issues.
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