ABSTRACT

Taiwan has held direct presidential elections four times since gradually democratizing over the 1990s. Of these, the election of 2004 was without a doubt the most intense and controversial. In 1996, four pairs of candidates took to the field in the battle to become the nation’s first directly-elected president and vice president. KMT candidates Lee Teng-hui and Lien Chan won the election with 54 per cent of the vote.618 In 2000, due to internal disagreements the KMT party was split giving rise to a splinter group, the PFP. While Lien Chan and Vincent Siew represented the KMT, James Soong, with solid support among the grassroots, broke away from the KMT and united with independent candidate Chang Chao-hsiung to run on his own ticket. As for the DPP ticket, former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian and Taoyuan County Magistrate Annette Lu combined to become the third contender in this fierce competition. In the end, Chen and Lu won 39 per cent of the ballots, compared to 37 per cent for Soong and Chang and 23 per cent for Lien and Siew.619