Student activist Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) runs for parliament in his native Miaoli; calls for constitutional reforms in Taiwan; India and its climate change challenges, and civil unrest in the US after a series of racially-charged cases of deaths by police.
After the dramatic local elections last week, political opinion makers from both the KMT and DPP sides are turning their attention to the issue of constitutional reform and systems of governance.
After the historical 2014 local elections in Taiwan, we check in with Kharis Templeman of Stanford’s Taiwan Democracy Project and Denny Weng of Wesleyan University about what to expect in the future for Taiwan’s political development.
On November 29, Taiwan’s ruling KMT suffered a historical defeat in nation-wide local elections, losing 9 of 16 county and metropolitan level executive positions, and losing 6.2% of local council seats overall.
The Taipei mayor’s race is highly idiosyncratic, and about the last place to look for insight into fundamental shift in Taiwan politics and elections. Instead, look for these three things on election night.