With the ruling party in deep distress the opposition should have won by leaps and bounds, says one analyst, while others point to campaign flaws and say result will put Ma Ying-jeou under pressure
The Kuomintang managed to hold on to power in Taipei's mayoral election, but lost narrowly in Kaohsiung. For the main opposition party that represents a defeat, analysts say.
They say the outcome will affect the presidential bid of KMT leader Ma Ying-jeou, whose leadership will come under scrutiny in the wake of the vote.
'At a time when the DPP is in deep distress because of corruption scandals, the KMT should have won by leaps and bounds, but it was not only defeated in Kaohsiung, it has failed to hold on to the 64 per cent [share of the] popular vote it won [in Taipei] four years ago,' said political analyst George Tsai Wei, of the Institute of International Relations.
Hau Lung-bin, 54, the KMT's standard bearer and a former environment chief, captured 692,085 votes, or 53.81 per cent of the popular vote in Taipei, winning by a wide margin over his ruling Democratic Progressive Party opponent, former premier Frank Hsieh Chang-ting.
Mr Hsieh, 60, also a former Kaohsiung mayor, garnered 525,869 votes, 40.89 per cent of the popular vote and 5 percentage points more than DPP candidate Lee Ying-yuan won four years ago in the capital. But it was not enough to take a city dominated by opposition supporters.