The two local elections held on Sunday were seen as another victory for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Independent legislator Freddy Lim, a DPP supporter, survived his recall vote while DPP candidate Lin Ching-yi won the Taichung legislative by-election.
Taiwan has seen a series of recall votes of local politicians after former Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu was successfully recalled in June 2020. Many of them have been seen as “revenge” recalls by the opposition Kuomintang of ruling camp politicians.
Independent Freddy Lim survived the recall because the number of voters did not reach the benchmark of 25% of eligible voters supporting the initiative. However, more voters supported the recall proposal than opposed it. The initiative needed 58,756 votes to succeed. On Sunday, 54,813 voters supported the recall initiative and 43,340 opposed it.
Lim’s recall challenge began in May of 2021, when part of his constituency was at the center of a COVID-19 outbreak in Wanhua. Some constituents accused Lim of backing a central government official who they thought was trying to put blame for the Wanhua outbreak on local people and clear the central government of responsibility. They also criticized an appearance Lim made with government officials at a local market in June, saying he never visited the market when the COVID outbreak hit the area.
President Tsai Ing-wen had stumped for Lim on Saturday evening and said recall votes should not be used as political weapons.
Lim is also well known as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Chthonic. Lim served as chair of Amnesty International Taiwan from 2010 to 2014 and was one of the founding leaders of the New Power Party.
In Taichung, the ruling DPP’s Lin Ching-yi won the legislative by-election in Taichung's second district, defeating the Kuomintang's Yen Kuan-heng and three other candidates. Lin received 88,752 votes, or about 51 percent against 80,912 votes, or 47 percent, for Yen. Lin is a doctor and was a legislator-at-large from 2016 to 2020.
The candidates were running for the position left vacant by former lawmaker Chen Po-wei of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party who was removed from his position in a recall election last October.
Local elections and the recent national referendum in December have been seen as votes on the ruling versus opposition camps. Tsai’s party also won in the referendum vote on national issues in December.