The 2006 Democratic Progressive Party chairmanship by-election was held on January 15, 2006 in
Taiwan. It was the tenth chairmanship election conducted by the party. In December 2005, chairperson
Su Tseng-chang resigned as a result of failing to win ten of the twenty-three positions in the
2005 local elections.
Candidates
There were many hopefuls that publicly expressed their desire for the chairmanship. These politicians withdrew after acting chairperson
Annette Lu withdrew her campaign. Only three candidates formally announced their bids for chairperson:
Wong Chin-chu, former legislator and former magistrate of
Changhua County, was the last to register. Wong Chin-chu, who left the New Tide faction, was not supported by any of the factions, but was endorsed by former chairperson
Lin Yi-hsiung.[3]
Results
Graphical depiction of the results
Yu won the race with over 54% of the votes. However, the
voter turnout was only 19.96%,[5] the lowest turnout in the party's history. This was significantly different from the
2005 Kuomintang election, which had a voter turnout of 50.17%.
It is commonly believed that Yu's successful campaign symbolized the fact that President
Chen Shui-bian's Justice Alliance was still in power within the party. After
Su Tseng-chang, also a member of the Justice Alliance, was appointed the premier, his term was relatively more stable as a result of the mutual cooperation between the three leaders.
On the other hand, former chairperson
Lin Yi-hsiung left the party as a result of the loss of Wong Chin-chu.