Hong Kong: Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party has slumped to landslide defeats in its local elections, prompting its premier to resign and delivering a major blow to leader Ma Ying-jeou, who has staked his presidency on building closer ties with Beijing.
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In losses much heavier than pre-election polls had predicted, the Nationalists – also known as the Kuomintang, or KMT – lost in five of the six municipalities, including traditional strongholds Taipei, the capital, and Taichung, a major central city.
In all, it only clinched six out of 22 city and county seats, compared to 16 at the previous election in 2010.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah – the government's number two – resigned within hours of the close of voting as the magnitude of the losses quickly became apparent.
"The election outcome shows the public is unhappy with our policies and governance," Mr Jiang said in a short address to announce his resignation.
The weekend's election – which saw more than 11,000 people voted into local office – has been widely seen as a referendum of the KMT's policies, including a push for closer economic integration with Beijing, which regards the self-ruled island as a renegade province. The vote would have been closely watched by Beijing as a key barometer for the next presidential election in 2016.
The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the big winners of Saturday's vote, is viewed with distrust by Beijing and has traditionally favoured a more combative approach in dealing with mainland China.
Mr Ma apologised for the crushing defeat but urged supporters to "wipe clean your tears" and unite for the party.
"Now my responsibility is to put forth reform proposals," he said.
But the decimated Nationalists may erode the president's ability to sign further trade agreements and to push for a historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before 2016.
DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who lost the 2012 presidential election to Mr Ma and only recently regained her party's leadership, said she saw the election outcome as a mandate for historic change that would "win Taiwan back step by step".
Beijing refrained from commenting directly on the vote itself, with a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office saying it had "taken note" of the election results and hoped both sides would continue to work for peaceful development in cross-strait relations.
The KMT's heavy election losses point to an electorate increasingly anxious over Beijing's encroaching influence on its self-rule.
In March, thousands of young demonstrators stormed and occupied Taiwan's parliament to protest the lack of consultation over a proposed cross-straits services trade liberalisation pact.
Negative sentiment toward the mainland has been stoked further by the hardline stance taken by Beijing on demands for democratic rule in Hong Kong. The pro-democracy protests, which have gripped the financial hub for more than two months, have received blanket coverage in Taiwan.
Titus Chen, an associate research professor at the Institute of International Relations at Taiwan's National Chengchi University, said Mr Ma was now effectively a "lame-duck president", with the DPP garnering much more bargaining power in the legislature.
"Various factors resulted in KMT's debacle in local elections: stagnating wages, food scandals … but overall, a prevailing urge for socio-economic justice and an island-wide disapproval of the Ma administration ran through every locality," Mr Chen said.
"But the presidential election in 2016 is different. Citizens might choose the candidate more in line with their ideological stance, rather than just socio-economic performance."
