1981 Taiwanese local elections

← 1977 14 November 1981 (1981-11-14) 1985 →
All 19 mayors/magistrates of cities, counties
Turnout	74.94%
Majority party Minority party   Leader Chiang Ching-kuo None Party Kuomintang Independent Popular vote 3,367,758 2,310,150 Percentage 59.13% 40.56% Mayors/ Magistrates 15 4
Kuomintang   Independents   Not up for election (Special municipalities of Taipei, Kaohsiung)

Local elections were held in Taiwan on 14 November 1981, electing 19 magistrates and mayors in the country, 77 members of the Taiwan Provincial Council, and members of the Taipei and Kaohsiung City Council.

The local poll is the first since the crackdown on the Tangwai movement. The result was largely the same with the last, with the ruling party maintaining control over 19 administrative divisions, and the opposition kept Yilan, Changhua, Pingtung, and Tainan City.

Source:^[1]

After 30 years in power, Kuomintang was hit by scandals of bribery and case-for-office in Yilan. Kuomintang nominated 李讚成 to run for office after he submitted nomination form just five minutes before the deadline, despite his repeated refusal beforehand.^[2]:205 However divisions within the Kuomintang remained unsolved.^[2]:207

The opposition Tangwai sent Chen Ding-nan after negotiations that saw his main rival You Si-kun agreed to run for Provincial Councillor instead, widely seen as a less challenging poll.^[2]:207-9

Nevertheless, Chen unexpectedly defeated the ruling party and became the first non-KMT magistrate of Yilan in three decades. The nationalists would only regain the leadership in Taipei 25 years later when Chen, who returned after being urged by the Democratic Progressive Party, failed to save the losing party in Yilan.

Incumbent Tangwai mayor Tzeng Wen-po (曾文坡) faced challenge from KMT-supported Lin Po-jung (林柏榕) and another Tangwai colleague 劉文雄. After a "smear" campaign by the Kuomintang exposing his nightclub life,^[3] Tzeng failed to win a second term, while Lin garnered additional support from local factions.

A fierce party primary with 14 hopefuls aiming for the party's nomination forced the party headquarter to nominate 陳伯村, friend of Vice President Hsieh Tung-min who worked in the Provincial Government and unaffiliated to any of the powerful local factions.^[4]

George Huang, who failed to win the magistrate in the last election, represented the Tangwai after he was considered to be well known in the county, despite facing some criticisms of "fake opposition". Huang Shun-hsing, the main foe of George Huang and former Taitung Magistrate, agreed to support him as an act of courtesy.^[5]

The grievance by the local factions and the uninspiring performance by Kuomintang's incumbent magistrate boosted Huang's support.^[4] The independent eventually defeated the KMT's nominee, the first in 12 years.

Kuomintang put up Wu Den-yih's name for Nantou's poll. The Taipei City Councillor ranked eighth in the party's primary, thus prompting 楊國平, who won the primary, to resign from the party and join the race.

Supported by the opposition, 楊國平 was nonetheless unable to block Wu after losing the race, receiving around 40% of votes. Wu embarked on his triumphant political journey, leading him to the vice-presidency.

Yang Pao-fa (楊寶發), the nationalist's incumbent magistrate, was apparently uninterested in re-election initially. He changed his mind after his rumoured promotion to the party headquarter was lost. Lee Ya-chiao (李雅樵), who was determined to represent the party in the upcoming election, came second in the party primary by a small margin.^[6]:75-81 As the party settled on Yang's nomination, Lee's supporters urged Lee to ran in the election. He at last accepted the invitation by the party to become a county official as compensation.^[6]:82,85

Two months before the election, Tainan was hit by downpour by typhoon. Without any rescue and food supply for two days, residents of the most affected regions denounced the local government for their slow response,^[6]:89 harming the support of the incumbent.

On the other hand, Tangwai endorsed 蔡四結 who left the party before the election.^[6]:93-4 Although unable to challenge Yang, he outranked the incumbent in the hard-hit township,^[7] demonstrating the anger by the public.

Su Nan-cheng, the incumbent mayor of Tainan, was seen as a shifting figure between the Kuomintang and Tangwai after he inclined towards the ruling party and denounced the liberals in the Kaohsiung crackdown. During his first four years of office he enjoyed well reputation for efficient governance. Kuomintang decided against endorsing any hopefuls and allowed open race. Tangwai also did not send anyone to challenge the incumbent. Scandals including alleged bribery and collusion between Su and the KMT did little to damage the incumbent's re-election hope. Sweeping 77% of ballots, Su became the first Tainan Mayor to start a second term of office. He rejoined the party in the next year under Chiang Ching-kuo's directive.

Local party in Kaohsiung supported Deputy Speaker Tsai Ming-yao from the local "white faction" to hold the city's seat. Tangwai was represented by Yu Chen Yueh-ying, with the backing of opposition heavyweight Yu Teng-fa. During the governance of KMT, the size of electorate in the county surged significantly, one of the towns saw its franchise expanded by a half.^[8]

After voting ended, televised live of vote counting abruptly suspended for a while. Mrs. Yu, who was originally leading Tsai by more than 20,000 votes, was narrowly defeated eventually. Yu Teng-fa, outraged by the fraudulent result, blamed himself for not doing the best while supervising the vote count.^[9]

Chiou Lien-hui, member of the Tangwai after leaving the party four years ago, was serving as Provincial Councillor, but decided to run for Pingtung Magistrate after refusing Province Chairman's offer in government.^[10]

Due to the demographic in the county, Hokkien community was by convention considered to be the rightful holder of the leadership with the Hakka deputising.^[11] Kuomintang therefore nominated Hokkien 陳恒盛, while Chiou was, on the other hand, questioned for endorsing Hakka in the previous election.^[12]

Kuomintang was allegedly attempting to instigate hatred against Hakka to gather more votes, as 陳恒盛 repeatedly highlighted the importance of Hokkien's unity in canvassing. In spite of the Hokkien–Hakka bitter relations, Chiou beat KMT after rallying support from some of the Hokkien and some from the Kuomintang.^[11]

Facing resentment from some of the local factions for favouring the rivalry factions, Chiang Sheng-ai (蔣聖愛), the incumbent, was re-elected but with three quarters of votes only. Some 25% went to political outsider 屠耀生, a taxi driver, regarded as no-confidence ballots against Chiang.

Source:^[1]