Taiwanese presidential election, 2000

Taiwan presidential election, 2000

← 1996 March 18, 2000 2004 →
Turnout	82.7%
Nominee Chen Shui-bian James Soong Lien Chan Party Democratic Progressive Petition Kuomintang Running mate Annette Lu Chang Chau-hsiung Vincent Siew Popular vote 4,977,737 4,664,932 2,925,513 Percentage 39.3% 36.8% 23.1%   Nominee Hsu Hsin-liang Li Ao Party Petition New Running mate Josephine Chu Elmer Fung Popular vote 79,429 16,782 Percentage 0.63% 0.13%
President before election Lee Teng-hui Kuomintang Elected President Chen Shui-bian Democratic Progressive

Lee Teng-hui
Kuomintang

Chen Shui-bian
Democratic Progressive

The second ever direct presidential election was held in Taiwan on March 18, 2000, to elect the 10th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China under the 1947 Constitution. With a voter turnout of 82.69%, Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu of the Democratic Progressive Party were elected president and vice president respectively with a slight plurality. This put an end to more than half a century of Kuomintang rule on Taiwan.

The ruling Kuomintang ran Vice President Lien Chan for President and Premier Vincent Siew for Vice President. Both were career civil servants and Lien, originating from the Taiwanese aristocracy, was seen as aloof and unable to empathize with the common people.

Though more popular and consistently ranked higher in the polls, the outspoken former Taiwan Governor James Soong failed to gain the Kuomintang's nomination. As a result, he announced his candidacy as an independent candidate. The Kuomintang responded by expelling Soong and 21 of his allies in November 1999. It is a very common belief among KMT supporters that President Lee Teng-hui was secretly supporting Chen Shui-bian, and purposely supported the less popular Lien in order to split the Kuomintang, and this belief was given a great deal of credibility after the 2000 election with Lee's defection to the Pan-Green coalition, though Lee's defection came only after his humiliating expulsion by the KMT. Soong, a mainlander, tried to appeal to the native Taiwanese by nominating pro-independence surgeon Chang Chao-hsiung as his running-mate.

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