Incumbent Changhua Magistrate Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) of the Kuomintang (KMT) declared victory in her reelection bid Saturday against her main challenger Huang Shiou-fang (黃秀芳) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Wang declared victory at around 7:35 p.m., but the vote count was still ongoing.
Wang finished with 368,161 votes, or 56.78 percent of the total, with Huang receiving 271,822 votes, or 41.92 percent, according to figures from the Central Election Commission (CEC).
The win for the 54-year-old Wang, a former legislator, means she has yet to lose an election since entering politics as a Changhua county councilor in 1994.
Born to a family that was heavily involved in local politics, Wang, was the only KMT legislator elected in Changhua in 2016 and two years later beat then DPP County magistrate Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) to take the top job.
Six months into her term as Changhua County magistrate, Wang decided not to host the 2020 edition of the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, citing the county’s poor finances.
Braving strong criticism, Wang also excluded wealthy individuals from Double Ninth cash gifts, insisting that “money must be spent in the right place.”
Wang’s campaign stressed that under her leadership the county government has reduced its debts by NT$4.2 billion (US$135 million).
Although Changhua is the only county-level administrative area with a population in excess of 1 million, at around 1.289 million, the county has been dogged by a serious exodus of people and the problem of aborted tenders for major public construction works.
When grilled over these two key issues, Wang often asks: “What has Huang done for the county as a legislator elected to represent Changhua?”
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel