Taiwan Elections | Minor political parties could sway voting behaviour in 2020: Reports

Taiwan is gearing up for the 2020 elections and according to early reports, it is likely that the current incumbent Tsai Ing-wen will win a second term in the upcoming presidential elections. Almost 1 million young people will be eligible to vote in the next elections and with the rise of several new-parties Tsai and her party the DPP might find these elections less favourable.

DPP will find these elections less favourable

According to polling data, Tsai had 46 per cent of the votes while its main rival the mainland-friendly Kuomintang's (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu had 31 per cent of the votes. Han is the populist mayor of Kaohsiung and came to power on a wave of anti-DPP sentiment. DPP 's disastrous showing in the local elections was due to its largely unpopular domestic policies but since those elections, Tsai's political fortunes have changed.

Beijing has always considered Taiwan to be a part of the mainland and has always envisaged reunification, by force if necessary. After the 2016 elections where Tsai came to power, Beijing has suspended official communication with Taipei and claimed by Taiwanese media that it poached seven of its diplomatic allies and reportedly staged numerous war games to intimidate the tiny island State. But all these aggressive tactics have only bolstered Tsai's plans to take back the island. A large section of the party workers and citizens feel Beijing is giving Tsai all the ammunition it needs to win the elections.

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Chang Yu-Tsung, a political-science professor at National Taiwan University who specialises in voting behaviour says that voters tend to use their ballots to adjust the situation. Chang stated that out of the 22 constituencies in Taiwan, 10 are contested and do not side with either party.
Another major factor in the upcoming elections is the fact that there will be a lot of new voters who do not identify with DPP or KMT and prefer to vote for the candidate they like.

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