
With Ko Wen-je reaching the end of his second term, the race for Taipei Mayor will be hotly contested. It seems, according to polling, that Wayne Chiang (蔣萬安) is the strongest candidate that the KMT has to offer, the DPP candidate is still being debated.
The two most likely candidates for the DPP are Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and current Minister of Health and Welfare, Chen Shih-chung (陳時中). There was a recent poll by the DPP to determine who would be the best candidate, reportedly Lin has recently over taken Chen, though the difference was within the margin of error. This is in spite of the fact that Chen, at least in previous polling, has been the strongest candidate against Chiang. However, it seems that the DPP will have a difficult task ahead of it regardless of their candidate as Chiang is quite popular in Taipei.
Neither Chen nor Lin has announced their candidacy yet. Chen is in an especially interesting predicament because being the Minister of Health and Welfare and the face of the CECC in Taiwan, he likely does not want to appear political, which could affect how people see Taiwan’s handling of the ongoing pandemic. How the pandemic turns out in Taiwan will likely also have a big impact on how people view Chen and whether his support rises or fades. Lin on the other hand is not currently in office and thus has more free time to campaign and is likely less affected by the ongoing pandemic and political decisions being made.
There will be more developments over the coming months. We will see who ends up being the preferred DPP candidate in Taipei and whether they’ll be able to outperform Chiang.