TAIPEI: Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou has asked for an election review report as soon as possible in the wake of the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT's) lackluster performance in Saturday's local elections, party officials reported yesterday.

The officials said that many within the party are worried that the KMT's solid support base in many areas is showing signs of erosion, which they think does not bode well for the municipal elections next year.

Ma, in his capacity as the KMT chairman, attaches great importance to such views and has asked the KMT Central Standing Committee to submit an election review report tomorrow (Wednesday), the officials said.

They attributed the KMT setback in Saturday's poll to several factors, including public discontent with Ma's administration, a flawed party nomination process, and the KMT candidates' failure to motivate voters.

"The KMT's support base has been seriously eroded," a party official said.

The KMT managed to retain 12 of the 17 mayors and magistrates seats that were up for grabs in Saturday's poll, but its level of support in several localities fell sharply, sending its overall average down to 47.88 percent compared to 50.96 percent in the last local election in 2005.

In comparison, the DPP recovered Yilan, retained its three seats in Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties and made substantial gains in the KMT's traditional strongholds of Penghu and Taitung.

The DPP also increased its share of the vote from 41.95 percent four years ago to 45.32 percent.

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said Sunday that the setback has sent a timely warning to the KMT, forcing it to make a thorough review.

He also said that the KMT should heed the gravitation of independent voters toward the traditionally pro-"independence" DPP, and advised that the strength of DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen and her party should not be underestimated.

Elections for heads of five municipalities - Taipei City, New Taipei City (now called Taipei County), Taichung (a merger of Taichung City and County), Tainan (a merger of Tainan City and County) and Kaohsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung City and County) - will be held in late 2010.

Meanwhile, Wu Den-yih, chief of the Executive Yuan, denied yesterday that there is a need to change government policy toward the mainland, despite the KMT's poorer-than-expected performance in Saturday's local elections.

The ruling party, which controlled 14 out of the 17 counties and cities involved in the elections prior to Saturday's polling, managed to hang on to 12 of them.

Wu said the government's policy is the result of comprehensive thinking, long discussion and broad consultation, and has not been formulated in haste.

With regard to the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with the mainland, the government will go ahead with it as planned, as it will serve Taiwan's interests and benefit the public, he added.

However, Wu said, the government's policy toward the mainland should still meet three requirements - Taiwan's needs, public support and legislative supervision.

The government will not push any policy that fails to meet any of those requirements, Wu went on.

Noting that the proposed ECFA enjoys a support rate of 50 percent to 56 percent among the public according to the latest poll results, Wu said he hopes to boost this figure to 60 percent, while bringing opposition down to below 20 percent.

"We are working hard on this," the premier said, adding that good policy should be carried out at the right time and should be fully understood by the people, which he admitted is something the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou has not managed effectively.

For example, he said, some people in central and southern Taiwan believe mistakenly that Ma's administration has opened Taiwan to many mainland agricultural products.

In fact, among the 1,415 items of mainland agricultural products allowed to be imported into Taiwan, 479 items were approved by the previous KMT administration, with the other 936 approved by the DPP when it was in power.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/08/2009 page2)