Chen Shui-bian will be able to maintain control of the party through his candidate. But the election has revealed, more than anything, the presence of influential anti-Chen factions and popular discontent with the party.
Taipei (AsiaNews/SCMP) Yu Shyi-kun, 57 years, former secretary-general of Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian, is the new chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party. But elections have revealed the presence of influential anti-Chen factions and confirmed popular discontent with the party.
Yu got 25,397, more than 54.4% of the vote amid a turnout of just 19.96% out of 235,000 eligible party members, highlighting a lack of interest among the party members themselves about the outcome, and also the lack of approval of Chen and his faction. Trong Chai Tung-jung, an MP and firmly pro-independence (from Beijing) activist, received 16,846 votes, backed by the vice-president Annette Lu Hsiu-lien; Wong Chin-chu, former magistrate of Changhua county, garnered 4,406 votes.
Chen, president of Taiwan, stepped down from the chairmanship of the DPP after disastrous local elections on 3 December when the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, won 50.9% of the votes, 14 out of 23 municipalities and posts of county magistrates. Chen and the leadership of the DPP are under fire, even within the party, for corruption allegations. Chen was even ignored by Beijing while the two main opposition leaders were received with the honours of a head of state in China in 2005. Stepping down from the post of party chairman will give him according to analysts more autonomy for his presidential post until it expires in 2008.
"The election to chairman of Yu Shyi-kun means Chen Shui-bian should be able to continue to exercise his influence in making major decisions," said Philip Yang Yung-ming, director of the Taiwan Security Research Centre at Centre at the National Taiwan University. But, he added, it also spelled the formation of an "anti-Chen force, which may collaborate to take away his power".
Experts say the core of the problem lies in winning back popular and party consensus. "The new president must restore the image of the DPP as a clean and reformist party to win back public support," said vice-president Lu. Lu had backed Chai, together with the ex premier Frank Hsieh Chang-ting.
Wong, who entered the fray late, has the backing of Lin Yi-hsiung, ex chairman of the DPP, held to be the "party conscience", who has often denounced the leadership as corrupt.
Immediately after the results were announced, Yu, mindful of the diaspora, "invited" the other two candidates "to work together to change the party".