2018 Taiwanese local elections

Local elections were held on 24 November 2018[2][3] in Taiwan, to elect county magistrates (city mayors), county (city) councilors, township mayors, township councilors and chiefs of village (borough) in 6 municipalities and 16 counties (cities). Elected officials would serve a four-year term. Polling stations were open from 08:00 to 16:00 on the election day.[4]

2018 Taiwanese local elections

24 November 2018[1]
22 magistrates/mayors and others[lower-alpha 1]
Registered	19,102,502
Turnout	66.96% 0.63 pp
Leader Wu Den-yih Tsai Ing-wen Party Kuomintang DPP Leader since 20 August 2017 28 May 2014 Last election 6 seats, 40.70% 13 seats, 47.55% Seats won 15 6 Seat change 9 7 Popular vote 6,102,876 4,897,730 Percentage 48.79% 39.16% Swing 8.09 pp 8.39 pp Councillors 394 238 Township/city mayors 83 40 Township/city representatives 390 151
Elected magistrate/mayor party by seat

The elections resulted in a substantial defeat for the DPP. The DPP previously held 13 of 22 municipalities and counties, but won only 6 in this election due to widespread public distrust, a de facto vote of no confidence on President Tsai's Administration, both politically (relations with China), economically (agriculture, tourism), and socially (pollution, labor laws, wages), which were reflected in the series of referendum results. The KMT won back executive control of 7 municipalities and counties from the DPP, while Ko Wen-je won his re-election for Taipei mayor.

Background

This local election is seen as the first test for the incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen since assuming office in May 2016. The results may affect the next legislative and presidential election in January 2020. The Central Election Commission opened election registration to candidates on 27 August 2018.[5]

The Democratic Progressive Party has won the popular vote against the Kuomintang in all of the last three elections.[6] This trend has continued in the 2016 elections, where the Democratic Progressive Party won a majority in the Legislative Yuan with 68 seats and the presidency.

Results summary

Elected magistrates/mayors and council composition in the 2018 Taiwanese local election

Subdivision	Magistrate/mayor				Council
	Party result		Elect		First party		Seats[lower-alpha 2]	Second party		Seats	Total seats
New Taipei City		Kuomintang hold		Hou You-yi		Kuomintang	33 7		DPP	25 7	66
Taipei City		Independent hold		Ko Wen-je		Kuomintang	29 1		DPP	19 8	63
Taoyuan City		DPP hold		Cheng Wen-tsan		Kuomintang	32 3		DPP	18 2	63
Taichung City		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Lu Shiow-yen		Kuomintang	32 4		DPP	25 2	65
Tainan City		DPP hold		Huang Wei-cher		DPP	25 3		Kuomintang	16	57
Kaohsiung City		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Han Kuo-yu		Kuomintang	33 9		DPP	25 8	66
Yilan County		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Lin Zi-miao		Kuomintang	13 2		DPP	8 4	34
Hsinchu County		Kuomintang hold		Yang Wen-ke		Kuomintang	19 2		DPP	2	36
Miaoli County		Kuomintang hold		Hsu Yao-chang		Kuomintang	14 5		DPP	4	38
Changhua County		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Wang Huei-mei		Kuomintang	28 4		DPP	12 5	54
Nantou County		Kuomintang hold		Lin Ming-chen		Kuomintang	17		DPP	8	37
Yunlin County		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Chang Li-shan		DPP	12 1		Kuomintang	7	43
Chiayi County		DPP hold		Weng Chang-liang		DPP	17 1		Kuomintang	9	37
Pingtung County		DPP hold		Pan Men-an		Kuomintang	17 2		DPP	15 3	55
Taitung County		Kuomintang hold		Rao Ching-ling		Kuomintang	21 1		DPP[lower-alpha 3]	1	30
Hualien County		Kuomintang gain from independent		Hsu Chen-wei		Kuomintang	18 2		DPP	3 3	33
Penghu County		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Lai Feng-wei		Kuomintang	4 4		DPP	3 1	19
Keelung City		DPP hold		Lin Yu-chang		Kuomintang	16 2		DPP	6 4	31
Hsinchu City		DPP hold		Lin Chih-chien		Kuomintang	15		DPP	6 1	34
Chiayi City		Kuomintang gain from DPP		Huang Min-hui		Kuomintang	5 1		DPP	4 1	23
Kinmen County		Kuomintang gain from independent		Yang Cheng-wu		Kuomintang	9 6		For Public Good Party	1 1	19
Lienchiang County		Kuomintang hold		Liu Cheng-ying		Kuomintang	7 1		None	N/A	9

Magistrate and mayor elections

Opinion polls

2018 Taiwan magistrate/mayor elections nationwide opinion poll

Poll organization	Date completed	KMT	DPP	Others	Ind.
TPOF	2018-11-08	33.9%	24.2%	－	14.9%
Trend Survey	2018-11-06	36.4%	25.9%	0.8%	15.2%
Taiwan Brain Trust	2018-07-28	29.5%	38.6%	0.4%	10.5%

Results

Subdivision	Electorate	Turnout (%)	Winner				Runner-up				Map
			Name		Votes	%	Name		Votes	%
New Taipei City	3,264,128	62.46		Hou You-yi	1,165,130	57.15		Su Tseng-chang	873,692	42.85
Taipei City	2,164,155	65.37		Ko Wen-je	580,820	41.05		Ting Shou-chung	577,566	40.82
Taoyuan City	1,732,591	59.63		Cheng Wen-tsan	552,330	53.46		Apollo Chen	407,234	39.42
Taichung City	2,213,789	66.12		Lu Shiow-yen	827,996	56.57		Lin Chia-lung	619,855	42.35
Tainan City	1,546,862	62.49		Huang Wei-cher	367,518	38.02		Kao Su-po	312,874	32.37
Kaohsiung City	2,281,338	72.63		Han Kuo-yu	892,545	53.87		Chen Chi-mai	742,239	44.80
Yilan County	373,510	66.97		Lin Zi-miao	123,767	49.48		Chen Ou-po	95,609	38.23
Hsinchu County	427,652	66.03		Yang Wen-ke	107,877	38.20		Hsu Hsin-ying	91,190	32.29
Miaoli County	446,507	68.17		Hsu Yao-chang	175,756	57.74		Hsu Ting-zhen	112,704	37.03
Changhua County	1,031,222	68.89		Wang Huei-mei	377,795	53.18		Wei Ming-ku	283,269	39.87
Nantou County	413,222	70.87		Lin Ming-chen	195,385	66.72		Hung Kuo-hao	97,460	33.28
Yunlin County	565,078	69.29		Chang Li-shan	210,770	53.82		Lee Chin-yung	163,325	41.72
Chiayi County	428,649	66.52		Weng Chang-liang	145,288	50.95		Wu Yu-jen	84,243	29.54
Pingtung County	689,393	68.20		Pan Men-an	262,809	55.90		Su Ching-chuan	197,518	42.01
Taitung County	179,706	66.51		Rao Ching-ling	70,577	59.05		Liu Chao-hao	44,264	37.04
Hualien County	268,817	63.09		Hsu Chen-wei	121,297	71.52		Liu Siao-Mei	43,879	25.87
Penghu County	86,603	61.10		Lai Feng-wei	20,570	38.87		Chen Kuang-fu	17,347	32.78
Keelung City	309,428	60.98		Lin Yu-chang	102,167	54.14		Hsieh Li-kung	86,529	45.86
Hsinchu City	338,323	64.17		Lin Chih-chien	107,612	49.57		Hsu Ming-tsai	60,508	27.87
Chiayi City	212,843	66.81		Huang Min-hui	58,558	41.18		Twu Shiing-jer	56,256	39.56
Kinmen County	117,913	41.75		Yang Cheng-wu	23,520	47.48		Chen Fu-hai	22,719	46.15
Lienchiang County	10,773	68.76		Liu Cheng-ying	4,861	65.62		Chu Hsiu-chen	1,284	17.33

Councillor elections

Nominations

Province	County	Members	KMT	DPP	TSU	PFP	NP	New Power Party	IND/Other
Special municipality
Taipei		63	33	27	1	4	7	5	48
New Taipei		66	36	36			3	6	41
Taoyuan		63	38	34		3		2	53
Taichung		65	37	36		3		4	51
Tainan		57	22	37	2	1		1	49
Kaohsiung		66	37	38	3	3		3	48
Taiwan Province
	Keelung	31	19	15		6		1	19
	Yilan County	34	16	18		1		3	36
	Hsinchu	34	20	12		1		4	36
	Hsinchu County	36	27	7				1	49
	Miaoli County	38	18	10				2	42
	Changhua County	54	29	26				1	32
	Nantou County	37	20	13					29
	Yunlin County	43	10	20	1			2	42
	Chiayi	23	8	8	2			1	24
	Chiayi County	37	9	22					30
	Hualien County	33	33	9				2	25
	Taitung County	30	29	4		2		2	30
	Pingtung County	55	32	30	1				43
	Penghu County	19	4	4				1	30
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	19	10	1		2			22
	Lienchiang County	9	10						3
Total		912	497	407	10	26	10	41	777

Opinion polls

2018 Municipal Councillor & County Councillor Nationwide Polls
Poll source	Date of completion	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Others	Independent	Lead
Taiwan Think Tank	April 1, 2018	28.5%	33.6%	－	4.9%	5.1%
Taiwan Brain Trust	July 28, 2018	29.9%	22.9%	－	3.6%	7%
New Power Party	September 5, 2018	25.2%	23.6%	12.1%	－	1.6%
Taipei
China Times	June 4, 2018	39.4%	16.6%	－	－	22.8%
Trends	July 16, 2018	27.1%	14.1%	7.1%	3.9%	13%
CM Media	July 26, 2018	35%	16.2%	12.7%	－	18.8%
Formosa	October 12, 2018	28.5%	16.3%	5.6%	－	12.2%
Taichung
CM Media	July 31, 2018	27.7%	21.3%	16%	－	6.4%
Kaohsiung
CM Media	September 18, 2018	27.5%	24.1%	17.3%	－	3.4%
Hsinchu City
Taiwan Green Party	August 24, 2018	27.3%	12.2%	10.2%	－	15.1%
Changhua County
CM Media	October 16, 2018	32.5%	17.8%	14.9%	－	14.7%
Chiayi City
CM Media	September 5, 2018	25%	24.7%	16.8%	－	0.3%
Yilan County
CM Media	September 26, 2018	27%	20.5%	15.3%	－	7.5%

Results

Province	County	Members	KMT	DPP	TSU	PFP	NP	New Power Party	IND/Other
Special municipality
Taipei		63	29	19		2	2	3	8
New Taipei		66	33	25					8
Taoyuan		63	32	18				1	12
Taichung		65	32	25		1			7
Tainan		57	16	25	1			1	14
Kaohsiung		66	33	25	1	1		2	4
County and Non-Municipal
	Keelung	31	16	6		2		1	6
	Yilan County	34	13	8		1			12
	Hsinchu	34	15	6				3	10
	Hsinchu County	36	19	2				1	14
	Miaoli County	38	14	4				2	18
	Changhua County	54	28	12				1	13
	Nantou County	37	17	8					12
	Yunlin County	43	7	12	1			1	22
	Chiayi	23	5	4	1			0	13
	Chiayi County	37	9	17					11
	Hualien County	33	18	3					12
	Taitung County	30	21	1		1			7
	Pingtung County	55	17	15	1				22
	Penghu County	19	4	3					12
Offshore	Kinmen County	19	9						10
	Lienchiang County	9	7						2
Total		912	394	238	5	8	2	16	249

Speaker/Deputy Speaker election
Special municipality		Speaker (Party)	Deputy Speaker (Party)
Province	County
Taipei		Chen Chin-hsiang( Kuomintang)	Yeh Lin-chuang( Kuomintang)
New Taipei		Chiang Ken-huang( Kuomintang)	Chen Hung-yuan( Kuomintang)
Taoyuan		Ciou Yi-sheng( Kuomintang)	Li Hsiao-chung( Kuomintang)
Taichung		Chang Qing-chao( Kuomintang)	Yen Li-ming( Kuomintang)
Tainan		Kuo Hsin-liang（ Independent）	Lin Bing-li（ Independent）
Kaohsiung		Xu Kun-yuan( Kuomintang)	Liu Shu-mei( Kuomintang)
Taiwan Province	Keelung	Tsai Wang-lien( Kuomintang)	Jonathan Lin( Kuomintang)
	Yilan County	Chang Chien-rong( Kuomintang)	Chen Han-chung（ Independent）
	Hsinchu County	Chang Zhen-rong( Kuomintang)	Wang Bing-han( Kuomintang)
	Hsinchu	Xu Xiu-rui( Kuomintang)	Yu Pang-yen( Kuomintang)
	Miaoli County	Chung Tung-chin( Kuomintang)	Li Wen-bin( Kuomintang)
	Changhua County	Hsieh Dien-lin( Kuomintang)	Hsu Yuan-luan( Kuomintang)
	Nantou County	He Sheng-feng( Kuomintang)	Pan Yi-quan( Kuomintang)
	Yunlin County	Shen Chung-lung( Kuomintang)	Su Chun-hao( Democratic Progressive Party)
	Chiayi County	Chang Ming-ta( Democratic Progressive Party)	Chen Yu-yueh( Democratic Progressive Party)
	Chiayi	Zhuang Feng-an（ Independent）	Su Tse-feng（ Independent）
	Pingtung County	Chou Tien-lun( Kuomintang)	Lu Wen-jui( Kuomintang)
	Taitung County	Wu Hsiu-hua( Kuomintang)	Lin Tsung-han( Kuomintang)
	Hualien County	Zhang Jun( Kuomintang)	Pan Yueh-Hsia( Kuomintang)
	Penghu County	Liu Chen Zhao-ling( Kuomintang)	Chen Shuang-chuan( Kuomintang)
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	Hung Yun-dian( Kuomintang)	Chou Tzu-chieh（ Independent）
	Lienchiang County	Chang Yung-chiang( Kuomintang)	Chou Jui-kuo( Kuomintang)

Township/city mayor elections

2018 Republic of China Township Head Results:

  Kuomintang

  Democratic Progressive Party

  Independent

Nominations

Province	County	Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Free Taiwan Party	Others	Independent
Special municipality （Mountain indigenous District）
Taiwan Province	Yilan County	12	11	10			11
	Hsinchu County	13	14	1			22
	Miaoli County	18	13	2			29
	Changhua County	26	19	19			44
	Nantou County	13	13	6			19
	Yunlin County	20	5	18			32
	Chiayi County	18	2	14			19
	Pingtung County	33	12	20	1	1	56
	Taitung County	16	13	3			27
	Hualien County	13	17	2			13
	Penghu County	6	3	2			7
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	6	8			1	10
	Lienchiang County	4	5
New Taipei City（Wulai District）		1					4
Taoyuan（Fuxing District）		1	1				2
Taichung（Heping District）		1	1				2
Kaohsiung（Maolin District, Taoyuan District, Namasia District）		3	2				7
Total		204	139	97	1	2	304
Note: The results of the election are subject to the Republic of China Central Election Commission. Other parties include: Youth Party: 1 candidate in Kinmen County. Taiwan Advance Party: One candidate in Pingtung County. The color of each municipality, county, and city is based on the party with the highest vote in the current election.

Results

Province	County	Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Others	Independent
Special municipality （Mountain indigenous District）
Taiwan Province	Yilan County	12	8	3		1
	Hsinchu County	13	10	0		3
	Miaoli County	18	10			8
	Changhua County	26	9	7		10
	Nantou County	13	4	2		7
	Yunlin County	20	1	9		10
	Chiayi County	18	0	7		11
	Pingtung County	33	8	7		18
	Taitung County	16	9	1		6
	Hualien County	13	12			1
	Penghu County	6	2			4
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	6	3			3
	Lienchiang County	4	4
New Taipei City（Wulai District）		1				1
Taoyuan（Fuxing District）		1	1
Taichung（Heping District）		1				1
Kaohsiung（Maolin District, Taoyuan District, Namasia District）		3	2			1
Total		204	83	40	2	79
Note: The results of the election are subject to the Republic of China Central Election Commission. The color of each municipality, county, and city is based on the party with the highest vote in the current election.

Township/city council elections

Nominations

Province	County	Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Labor Party	Trees Party	People's First Party	New Power Party	Others	Independent
Special municipality （Mountain indigenous District）
Taiwan Province	Yilan County	131	49	37				2		143
	Hsinchu County	142	68	5	1	1	1			187
	Miaoli County	193	17	6						295
	Changhua County	317	47	85						385
	Nantou County	163	43	5						208
	Yunlin County	228	15	45						293
	Chiayi County	193	19	6						247
	Pingtung County	334	55	53					2	420
	Taitung County	136	59	6				2		169
	Hualien County	142	92	8					1	143
	Penghu County	51	4	3		7				75
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	47	20						4	41
	Lienchiang County	22	20							13
New Taipei City（Wulai District）		7								13
Taoyuan（Fuxing District）		11	4							21
Taichung（Heping District）		11	6							12
Kaohsiung（Maolin District, Taoyuan District, Namasia District）		21	5							37
Total		2,149	523	259	1	8	1	4	7	2,702
註: The results of the election are subject to the Republic of China Central Election Commission. The color of each municipality, county, and city is based on the party with the highest vote in the current election.

Results

Province	County	Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Others	Independent
Special municipality （Mountain indigenous District）
Taiwan Province	Yilan County	131	37	26		68
	Hsinchu County	142	51	1	1	89
	Miaoli County	193	11	2		180
	Changhua County	317	38	39		240
	Nantou County	163	34	2		127
	Yunlin County	228	13	28		187
	Chiayi County	193	11	6		176
	Pingtung County	334	43	39		252
	Taitung County	136	42	3		91
	Hualien County	142	65	4	1	73
	Penghu County	51	3	1		47
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	47	17		2	28
	Lienchiang County	21	13			8
New Taipei City（Wulai District）		7				7
Taoyuan（Fuxing District）		11	4			7
Taichung（Heping District）		11	5			6
Kaohsiung（Maolin District, Taoyuan District, Namasia District）		21	3			18
Total		2,149	390	151	4	1,604
註: The results of the election are subject to the Republic of China Central Election Commission. The color of each municipality, county, and city is based on the party with the highest vote in the current election.

Village chief elections

Nominations

Special municipality		Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	People First Party	TSU	Chinese Unification Promotion Party	People's Democratic Party	New Power Party	Green Party Taiwan	Others	Independent
Province	County
Taipei		456	282	63				3			13	576
New Taipei		1,032	300	41			4	1	1		9	1,491
Taoyuan		504	132	3							7	844
Taichung		625	139	79							4	1,023
Tainan		649	64	115								1,217
Kaohsiung		891	173	218		1					1	1,320
Taiwan Province	Keelung City	157	33	4				1				258
	Yilan County	233	38	8					1			401
	Hsinchu County	192	77		1							318
	Hsinchu City	122	20							1		209
	Miaoli County	275	11								1	509
	Changhua County	589	38	11			1				1	1,067
	Nantou County	262	55	4								469
	Yunlin County	391	11								1	739
	Chiayi County	357	8								1	631
	Chiayi City	84	20	2								128
	Pingtung County	463	54	6			1					815
	Taitung County	147	70	5	1				1		1	251
	Hualien County	176	138	2								248
	Penghu County	96	17	2								173
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	37	17								1	68
	Lienchiang County	22	23									10
Total		7,760	1,720	563	2	1	6	5	3	1	40	12,768

Results

Special municipality		Members	Kuomintang	Democratic Progressive Party	Chinese Unification Promotion Party	People First Party	New Power Party	People's Democratic Front	Others	Independent
Province	County
Taipei		456	216	35				1		204
New Taipei		1029	234	27	1		1			766
Taoyuan		504	90	2					2	410
Taichung		624	107	18						499
Tainan		649	42	53						554
Kaohsiung		887	123	130						634
Taiwan Province	Keelung City	157	21	2						134
	Yilan County	233	23	5						205
	Hsinchu County	192	42							150
	Hsinchu City	121	14							107
	Miaoli County	274	4						1	269
	Changhua County	589	28	6						555
	Nantou County	262	36	1						225
	Yunlin County	390	5							385
	Chiayi County	356	6							350
	Chiayi City	84	16	1						67
	Pingtung County	461	32	3						426
	Taitung County	147	42	1		1			1	102
	Hualien County	175	103	1						71
	Penghu County	95	10							85
Fujian Province	Kinmen County	37	6							31
	Lienchiang County	22	20							2
Total		7,760	1,120	285	1	1	1	1	4	6,231

Aftermath

The Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen has announced resignation as the party head for Democratic Progressive Party; Premier William Lai has announced resignation on Facebook, but reserved ; DPP secretary general Hung Yao-fu and Secretary-General to the President Chen Chu has also announced their resignations. Following the elections, the Taiwanese foreign minister claimed that China had meddled in the elections.[7]

Defector William Wang claimed that the government of China had successfully supported candidates in the 2018 Taiwanese local elections.[8]

See also

• 2019 Taiwanese legislative by-elections
• 2020 Kaohsiung mayoral recall vote
• 2020 Taiwanese presidential election
• 2020 Taiwanese legislative election

Notes

1. • 912 councillors
   • 204 township/city mayors and indigenous district chief administrators
   • 2,149 township/city council representatives
   • 7,760 village chiefs
   Figures in this infobox are for magistrate/mayor elections unless otherwise noted. Special municipalities are counted with counties/cities despite being counted separately in official statistics
2. Bold figures indicate majority
3. Tied with PFP

References

1. "中選會選舉資料庫網站". cec.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved 16 January 2020.
2. Liu, Lee-jung; Lin, Ko (16 January 2018). "Local elections to be held in November". Central News Agency. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
3. Yang, Sophia (16 January 2018). "Taiwan to host nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24". Taiwan News. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
4. "Taiwan Local Elections of 2014 - Central Election Commission". cec.gov.tw. Archived from the original on 2014-11-19. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
5. Chen, Yu-fu; Hetherington, William (27 August 2018). "Election registrations open today". Taipei Times. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
6. 中選會資料庫網站]，中央選舉委員會 (in Chinese). Central Election Commission.
7. Brown, Adrian. "China accused of political meddling after Taiwan local elections". www.aljazeera.com. Al Jazeera. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
8. "Chinese spy confirms China's involvement in Taiwan 2020 election". Taiwan News. 23 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019. Wang said that Beijing successfully backed several pro-China politicians, who won seats in the 2018 local elections.