9.98b 0.76d Votes Turnout 76.04 82.69 80.28 76.33 74.38 Source:Central Electoral Commission in Taiwan (http://www.cec.gov.tw) *In the table,a refers the votes for Lin Yang-kang and Hau Pei-tsun,b refers to the votes for Chen Lv-an and Wang Chang-qing,c refers to is the votes for James Soong,d refers to the combined votes for the other two groups of candidates headed by Hsu Hsin-liang and Lee Au respectively 3.Regional Disparities and Party Identification in Evolution Geographically,Taiwan's asymmetric party politics was reflected in the popular term of"Northern Blue and Southern Green."This term originated from the 2005 city mayoral and county magisterial elections when the DPP maintained the leaderships of Tainan city, and Taiwan,Kaohsiung,Pingdong,Chiayi and Yunlin counties (in addition to the Kaohsiung mayoralty the party won in 1998 and 2002),all of which except for Yunlin geographically belong to the southern part of Taiwan.Meanwhile,the KMT controlled north and most parts of central Taiwan.This situation began to change in the 2009 local elections,when the DPP obtained the magistracy of Yilan County,which is located actually at the northeast part of the island.However,because districts under DPP's control are mainly in the south,the so-called Northern Blue and Southern Green phenomenon was not fundamentally changed until 2014,when the Green map expanded from the South to the North,crossing not only the Chuoshui (Zhuoshui)Creek and Daan Creek,but also Tanshui(Danshui)River and the Keelung(Jilong)River at the northern part of Taiwan The term of Northern Blue and Southern Green is still valid in describing the current seat distribution between the two parties in the legislature.Among 32 single-member legislative districts to the north of Taichung,the DPP has only 4 seats,while among the 20 districts to the south of Yunlin,the DPP has 16 seats.In central Taiwan,including Taichung,Changhua(Zhanghua),Nantou and Yunlin,the DPP maintains 5 seats out of 16. The geographic political map is very likely to change as well after the 2016 legislative election,given the fact that the DPP nowadays controls many districts in central and northern parts of Taiwan,in addition to that in the South. Party preference of the Blue or Green among Taiwanese people has also changed in recent years.In the past,much more people identified themselves with the Blue parties (the KMT,PFP and CNP)than with the Green parties(the DPP and TSU).According to a longitudinal survey conducted by the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University in June 2014,however,slightly more interviewees identified themselves with the DPP than with the KMT(more than 2%)for the first time.7 This is attributable to the March 18th Sunflower Student Movement against the KMT administration's decision to sign the Service Trade Agreement with the mainland.The students intentionally used the word "sunflower"to boycott their perceived "black box"process of policymaking on the part of the Ma administration.Similar surveys conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research suggests that more interviewees identified themselves with the DPP than with the KMT as early as October 2013,which was attributable to an inner-party power struggle then between Ma Ying-jeou and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng.According to this series of surveys,the Sunflower Movement has increased the number of people 7 Accessed at http://esc.nccu.edu.tw/main.php.8 9.98b 0.76d / / / Votes Turnout 76.04 82.69 80.28 76.33 74.38 Source：Central Electoral Commission in Taiwan（http://www.cec.gov.tw）. * In the table, a refers the votes for Lin Yang-kang and Hau Pei-tsun, b refers to the votes for Chen Lv-an and Wang Chang-qing, c refers to is the votes for James Soong, d refers to the combined votes for the other two groups of candidates headed by Hsu Hsin-liang and Lee Au respectively. 3. Regional Disparities and Party Identification in Evolution Geographically, Taiwan’s asymmetric party politics was reflected in the popular term of “Northern Blue and Southern Green.” This term originated from the 2005 city mayoral and county magisterial elections when the DPP maintained the leaderships of Tainan city, and Taiwan, Kaohsiung, Pingdong, Chiayi and Yunlin counties (in addition to the Kaohsiung mayoralty the party won in 1998 and 2002), all of which except for Yunlin geographically belong to the southern part of Taiwan. Meanwhile, the KMT controlled north and most parts of central Taiwan. This situation began to change in the 2009 local elections, when the DPP obtained the magistracy of Yilan County, which is located actually at the northeast part of the island. However, because districts under DPP’s control are mainly in the south, the so-called Northern Blue and Southern Green phenomenon was not fundamentally changed until 2014, when the Green map expanded from the South to the North, crossing not only the Chuoshui (Zhuoshui) Creek and Daan Creek, but also Tanshui (Danshui) River and the Keelung (Jilong) River at the northern part of Taiwan. The term of Northern Blue and Southern Green is still valid in describing the current seat distribution between the two parties in the legislature. Among 32 single-member legislative districts to the north of Taichung, the DPP has only 4 seats, while among the 20 districts to the south of Yunlin, the DPP has 16 seats. In central Taiwan, including Taichung, Changhua (Zhanghua), Nantou and Yunlin, the DPP maintains 5 seats out of 16. The geographic political map is very likely to change as well after the 2016 legislative election, given the fact that the DPP nowadays controls many districts in central and northern parts of Taiwan, in addition to that in the South. Party preference of the Blue or Green among Taiwanese people has also changed in recent years. In the past, much more people identified themselves with the Blue parties (the KMT, PFP and CNP) than with the Green parties (the DPP and TSU). According to a longitudinal survey conducted by the Election Study Center at National Chengchi University in June 2014, however, slightly more interviewees identified themselves with the DPP than with the KMT (more than 2%) for the first time.7 This is attributable to the March 18th Sunflower Student Movement against the KMT administration’s decision to sign the Service Trade Agreement with the mainland. The students intentionally used the word “sunflower” to boycott their perceived “black box” process of policymaking on the part of the Ma administration. Similar surveys conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research suggests that more interviewees identified themselves with the DPP than with the KMT as early as October 2013, which was attributable to an inner-party power struggle then between Ma Ying-jeou and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng. According to this series of surveys, the Sunflower Movement has increased the number of people 7 Accessed at http://esc.nccu.edu.tw/main.php