This is not a repeat post! In January the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party in Taiwan lost three by-elections to the Legislative Yuan. On Saturday, it lost three more!

On 27 February four by-elections were held. They took place because because the deputies that had previously held the seats had been elected as county magistrates and cumulative office-holding is forbidden.

In the elections, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DMM) won the seats in Hsinchu, Taoyuan and Chiayi counties, while the KMT retained its seat in Hualien county. It is not entirely clear to me whether the three DPP seats were all gains from the KMT, but there is a report that says that the Hsinchu and Taoyuan seats used to be KMT strongholds, suggesting gains there at least.

In Taoyuan the result was relatively close with the DPP’s candidate winning 45,363 votes compared with 42,600 for the KMT. However, in Hsinchu and Chiayi the DPP had big majorities. In Hsinchu the DPP won 71,625 votes compared with 56,342 for the KMT, while in Chiayi the results was 57,451 to 27,138 respectively. In Hualien the KMT’s victory was comfortable, the party’s candidate winning 39,379 votes to 33,249 for the DPP. Source: Central Election Commission of Taiwan.

The results were another blow to the KMT and to President Ma, who was elected in 2009.

According to Taiwan News the KMT now has 75 seats in the Legislative Yuan (including 4 seats for two other parties), the DPP has 33 seats, and there are 5 independents.