Presidential hopes played down after Chiang wins Taipei mayoral contest

“Everyone, we did it,” an emotional Wayne Chiang Wan-an told a cheering crowd on Saturday after he declared victory in the Taipei mayoral election, a feat that observers said had consolidated his status as a rising political star.

Chiang, the great-grandson of Taiwan’s late leader Chiang Kai-shek, handed the main opposition Kuomintang the capital city eight years after outgoing mayor Ko Wen-je, of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party, took over the city government in 2014.

In one of several local polls on Saturday, Chiang beat two formidable opponents – former health minister Chen Shih-chung of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and Huang Shan-shan, Taipei’s deputy mayor, who ran as an independent.

He received over 575,000 votes, beating Chen who had 434,000 and Huang, 342,000. He won all but one of the 12 constituent districts, according to the Central Election Commission.

“The victory belongs to every citizen of Taipei. It is a victory for light over darkness and for good over evil,” said Chiang, who will be Taipei’s youngest ever mayor.

The pandemic may have played a role in Chiang’s success. Chen, his closest rival, had headed the Central Epidemic Command Centre before joining the race. But analysts said voters disapproved of Chen’s anti-Covid-19 policy.

“Chiang and his campaign aides had in the later stage turned the focus to criticising Chen and President Tsai Ing-wen, who had asked Chen to run, for failing to protect the health of the public, because of their poor anti-Covid and vaccine supply measures,” said Juang Wen-jong, a public policy management professor at Shih Hsin University in Taipei.

Chen and the Tsai government had been criticised for allegedly blocking the import of vaccines to protect locally developed ones, which had taken a longer approval time for emergency authorisation before they were allowed into the market.

Juang said Chiang’s age of 43 as well as his family background, also helped him win.

But Chiang’s chances of replicating another election victory in the 2024 presidential elections might be slim.

Observers said he would need further grooming in administration, even though the mayoral post has often been seen as the best springboard to the top post.

Chiang’s great-grandfather Chiang Kai-shek was the late Kuomintang leader, who set up an interim government in Taiwan after his defeat by the Chinese communists in a civil war in 1949.

A corporate lawyer in the US, Wayne Chiang returned to Taiwan in 2013 and later ran for a seat in the legislature. He had been rated as the best and most attentive lawmaker by political monitoring groups during his two terms.

Observers said Chiang’s family background was neither a liability nor an asset. “Voters in Taipei who are relatively more educated tend to have their own views and will not be swayed easily, especially when it comes to family history,” said Li Da-jung, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University.

He said that even though older-generation KMT supporters might vote for Chiang as he is Chiang Kai-shek’s descendant, the Chiang family’s influence had diminished over time, especially after the DPP government set up a justice-redeemed group to find fault in the late Chiang, whom it sees as a dictator and murderer.

“But for him to be seen as a presidential candidate in 2024, it would be too soon to make any conclusion. He will be in office as mayor for just one year, and will need more grooming before he is experienced enough to run,” Li said, adding Chiang would have a better chance in 2028.