Beijing on ballot in Taiwan vote

Saturday's elections, Taiwan's biggest regional vote yet, will see representatives elected to 11,130 local seats, including mayoral posts. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has backed Dr. Ko Wen-je (pictured) to win in Taipei. However, the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) hopes to hold on to the island's capital, a party stronghold.

"We will do our best and work hard until the last moment, whether in areas where we are lagging behind or stalling or leading, to try to get every vote," KMT spokesman Charles Chen told the news agency AFP.

Opinion polls, however, suggest the KMT will lose heavily across the island. The party has struggled with fears over mainland influence, the economy and food scandals.

A KMT loss could disrupt negotiations with China on trade and investment deals that have raised hopes in Beijing for political reunification with the central government. A proposed trade pact with China sparked mass student-led protests and a three-week occupation of Taiwan's parliament earlier this year. When China sent Taiwan Affairs Minister Zhang Zhijun to the island in June, protesters pelted his motorcade with paint.

'We are marching'

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the 1940s civil war. The island's KMT president, Ma Ying-jeou, has cozied up to the mainland, which has threatened to revoke Taiwan's sovereignty by force, since taking office in 2008. Leadership elections should happen in early 2016 with China policy a key issue as the embattled Ma must step down at the end of his second four-year term.

Ma has broken with the mainland over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, another semiautonomous island that the Chinese government has sought to increase its influence over. However, the president has mostly made good on a pledge to boost trade with China when he came to power, ending the liberal DPP's eight-year rule.

The KMT currently dominates 15 of Taiwan's 22 cities and counties, while the DPP holds seven. Of the six larger municipalities, the most hotly contested seats, the KMT controls three in the north and one in the center, against the DPP's two in the south.

On Friday, the Central Election Commission predicted a turnout between 65 and 70 percent. DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen also made an island-wide tour in a final push for votes Friday.

"The highest goal of our overall campaign is to overturn all three cities in central Taiwan, and we are marching towards this goal," she said.

mkg/lw (Reuters, AFP, AP)