Candidate Image and Victory Factors：A Case Study of Penghu Mayoral Election in 2014

• Main Authors: Yun-ru Chen, 陳韻如
• Other Authors: Cheng-Hsun Hsieh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/hn723z

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 公共事務管理研究所 === 103 === This thesis attempts to study the subjective recognition of candidates in the mind of voters for whom the images of the candidates come up to a vital dimension in their decision making. In the 2014 election of Penghu magistrate, senior voters cast their ballets according to their identification with political parties. Senior citizens with preference for political parties tend to stay with their political inclination. While most voters place priority in personal performance rather than party recommendation, the devastation of performance both at the level of local and central government becomes the decisive factor in ballet casting. I intend to conduct this study to clarify the relation between individual candidate images and the decision in vote casting out of 432 valid questionnaires on eligible citizens household registering in Penghu. My discussion of candidate images include identification with political parties, personal qualities, positions in public issues and their retrospective evaluation. I intend to apply descriptive statistics, Chi-square Test, and analysis of variance to examine the social background of the voters and the association with their decision in ballet casting, in order to scrutinise the key factors of their victories in elections. My study indicates that all variance of the image of the candidates are all key factors in voters’ decision making, hence all four factors in discussion behold high positive correlations. All in all, those who are above 60, with education below junior high, with distinct preference to either pan-blue or pan-green camp, with stronger ties with political parties, are inclined to electing candidates nominated by their parties. Voters with conspicuous preference to parties tend to acclaim personal qualities of their advocates while male and pan-green electors are liable to maintain lower retrospective evaluation. Voters with explicit preference are prone to approval of candidate images. That’s also where my study reveals greater differences in the retrospective evaluation. The winning candidate, Kuang-fu Chen (DPP) prevails in most categories of comparison while Kun-shung Su (KMT) shows no less competition in these items. The decisive factor is attributed to the impotence of governmental performance at centre and local level and the overall sentiment of disappointment in the general public. To conclude, most voters are prone to decisions over personal qualities instead of party nomination in this election of magistrate. Such tendency manifests voters’ choice over stagnant and restricted preference to political parties and suggests a breakthrough in rising above bipolar confrontations thus forecasts a rational perspective in their objective speculations.