Testing times for KMT in municipal polls

Taiwan's Kuomintang is fighting a tough battle in Saturday's municipality elections, hoping to retain all three of the mayoral posts it currently holds.

A loss of even one post would be a disaster for the ruling party, which suffered setbacks in the local magistrate elections last year.

If the KMT does lose, it would not only undermine mainland-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou's chances in his re-election bid in 2012, but could also cool cross-strait relations. The polls in five special municipalities have been widely seen as a midterm test of Ma and the mainland engagement policy he adopted since he took office in 2008.

As the elections cover five major cities and more than 60 per cent of Taiwanese voters, the poll results can thus be used as a political barometer for 2012.

While Taipei, the capital, is an old constituency, the rest of the cities are new constituencies formed as a result of the mergers of Kaohsiung city and county, Tainan city and county, Taichung city and county, and the elevation of Taipei county as a municipality under the cabinet's jurisdiction. Of those five constituencies, Taipei county - which will be renamed Xinbei city after the elections - is considered the key area. With more than 2.8 million voters, it is the largest of all cities and counties in Taiwan.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party is expected to hold onto its two municipalities, Kaohsiung and Tainan, which are the pro-independence party's strongholds in the south. So anything it gains beyond that would simply be a bonus.