Winning key post may boost DPP chief's bid for presidency

Dr Tsai Ing-wen, the chairwoman of Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, may have secured a ticket to the 2012 presidential election after an impressive win in yesterday's local polls.

The 53-year-old academic turned politician succeeded in leading her party to add an extra top local post in the northeastern county of Ilan to the three posts it holds in the southern county of Pingtung and southwestern counties of Chiayi and Yunlin.

Winning back Ilan, a key constituency the DPP held for 24 years until the KMT claimed victory there in 2005, has long been on the DPP's wish list, and securing it will be seen as a big achievement.

Tsai had declared Ilan a key battlefield while campaigning for the DPP's candidate, Lin Tsung-hsien, who defeated his KMT counterpart, magistrate Lu Kuo-hua, to take back the county. Hsinchu and Hualien were the other two main battlefields.

'The electoral victory has made her [Tsai] the common leader of the pro-independence camp,' said Wang Kung-yi, professor of international strategic studies at Taiwan's Tamkang University.

'If she is able to lead the DPP to win the more important, special municipality elections next year, she should be able to secure her position as the DPP's unchallenged standard-bearer in the 2012 presidential election.'