Healing, dealing begin for transformed Taiwan

DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh, left and Kaohsiung Mayor celebrate winning 87 seats in the island's legislative elections.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (CNN) -- Calls for political healing and concern about reaction from China have followed the historic victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan's elections.

Major newspapers on Sunday urged President Chen Shui-bian to "say goodbye to election fervor and antagonism" and rebuild mutual trust between ruling and opposition parties.

Saturday's watershed poll transformed Taiwan politics.

After five decades of dominance, The Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), was swept from power with the DPP winning the largest slice in the 225-seat Legislative Yuan and set for coalition rule.

MORE STORIES • In-Depth: Taiwan votes

The parliament was the final stronghold of the Nationalists after Chen won the presidency last year.

Until then, the Nationalists had governed Taiwan for half a century after fleeing China in 1949 when they were defeated by Mao Zedong's Red Army.

Chen's party, which improved from 66 seats to 87 as the Nationalists dropped from 123 to 68, must now form a coalition to tackle the island's worst ever recession and record unemployment and mend fences with China.

With no one party in control of absolute control of parliament, commentators are calling on political leaders to end their feuding in order to bring an end to months of political deadlock that has blighted President Chen's first 19 months in office.

As a result issues such as the island's worst recession in three decades, soaring unemployment and tense relations with the mainland have gone largely unaddressed.

The defeat for the Nationalists is sure to alarm Beijing, which will see it emboldening the DPP to move Taiwan further towards independence and a higher international profile for the island.

While Chen has backed away from independence, Beijing maintains its threat to attack if the island tries to break away or drags its feet on unification talks.

Political dealing

No party won an absolute majority in the legislature, and a period of intense political horse-trading is expected in the coming days, with Chen likely to seek reliable allies to build a recession-busting coalition.

A relatively low turnout of 66 percent resulted from a campaign largely characterized by name-calling, with little focus on the issues facing Taiwan, commentators said.

If efforts to build a workable coalition are successful, the victory could strengthen Chen's hand in talks with China, which has so far considered him a weak president.

However, some analysts have speculated that Beijing, which has been relatively quiet during the election campaign, might be more willing to start talks with Chen if he did well in the election.

Some disgruntled party members left the KMT following its dismal showing in last year's presidential vote and formed their own parties.

Those parties did well in their first electoral test. The People's First Party scored a stunning 46 seats, while the Taiwan Solidarity Union won 13.

In races for a total of 23 mayoral and county seats, the DPP won nine seats -- three fewer than it had before the vote.

The Nationalist Party gained one seat by winning nine. Small parties and independents won the rest.

Despite its loss, the KMT remains a powerful force in Taiwanese politics, and the future shape of Chen's coalition will depend to a significant degree on the level of cooperation the party is willing to offer.