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Taiwanese Opposition Wins Legislative Vote

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By PETER ENAV, The Associated Press

Published: January 13, 2008

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in legislative elections Saturday, giving a big boost to its policy of closer engagement with China two months before a presidential poll it now seems poised to win.

President Chen Shui-bian, who has been criticized for aggravating relations with China by promoting policies to formalize Taiwan's de facto independence, resigned as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party immediately after the extent of the defeat became clear.

"I should shoulder all responsibilities," Chen said. "I feel really apologetic and shamed."

His resignation does not affect his status as president.

With all votes counted, the official Central Election Commission said the Nationalists had won 81 seats in the 113-seat Legislature against only 27 for the DPP, with four going to Nationalist-leaning independents and one to a Nationalist satellite party.

Critics say Chen's China policies have allowed Taiwan's once-vibrant economy to lose competitiveness and have ratcheted up tension in the perennially edgy Taiwan Strait.

The Nationalists ruled a united China before 1949 and were the mainland communists' enemies in a civil war. The party and Beijing, however, have found common cause in recent years in their opposition to Chen.

Washington also has made it clear it finds Chen's policies toward Beijing dangerous and provocative - particularly a planned referendum on Taiwanese membership in the United Nations, which appears designed to underscore the democratic island's political separateness from the communist mainland.

A March 22 presidential election to choose a successor to Chen, who must step down after eight years in office, pits the ruling DPP's Frank Hsieh against Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist Party. Recent opinion polls give Ma a 20-point lead, and Saturday's win by his party is likely to give the former Taipei mayor a further boost.

If the Nationalists do go on to recapture the presidency, they will be in a strong position to end years of deadlock between Taiwan's legislative and executive branches, and stabilize the island's rocky relations with China.

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