As Pan Men-an (潘孟安) concludes his second term as Pingtung County Magistrate, the DPP has a big decision on who will run for his seat. Currently it appears that the DPP has 3 potential candidates for the position.
The first potential contender is Chou Chun-mi (周春米), who would be the first female magistrate in Pingtung history if elected. Chou is currently a representative in the Legislative Yuan. According to recent polling it seems that she has the best shot at winning the position. She garnered the largest amount of support of the three main candidates, receiving with 37 percent support in a head-to-head.
Another possible option for DPP voters is Chuang Jui-Hsiung (莊瑞雄). Chuang is also a member of the Legislative Yuan. He received 26 percent of the vote in the polling, narrowly edging out the third place finisher.
The final of the three is Chung Chia-Pin (鍾佳濱). Chung, like his fellow DPP candidates, is currently a legislator in the Legislative Yuan, he was also the Deputy Magistrate for Pingtung Country for 8 years, from 2006 to 2014. He walked away with 24.1 percent of support in the poll. However, he has just gotten some support that could potentially help him jump a spot or two in the race.
Chung was recently endorsed by the current Vice President of Taiwan, Lai Ching‑te (賴淸德). Lai issued a press release supporting Chung’s run for the position of Pingtung Country Magistrate. Whether this will have any profound affect will be seen as we get closer to the election in November.
Whichever of the three candidates wins the primary is likely to face off against Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉). Su is a former member of the Legislative Yuan, and was Pan Men-an’s opponent in the 2018 Pingtung Magistrate race, Su lost by over 13 percentage points that year. It seems, at least looking at current polling, that the result of this years election will be a repeat of 2018.
According to polling all three candidates are set to landslide Su. Even the potential nominee with the closest race against Su, Chuang Jui-Hsiung, is set to beat him by over 30 points. Chou is expected to best him by whopping 43.4 percentage points with Su failing to even get 20 percent of the vote.
While all of this is subject to change as we get closer to the election, it certainly doesn’t look good for the KMT in Pingtung. The DPP seem set to continue their long history of leading the southern county.