Tainan - Government and Politics

Government and Politics

Main articles: Tainan City Government and Tainan City Council See also: List of mayors of Tainan and Republic of China municipal elections, 2010#Tainan

Tainan City is a special municipality, which is the highest level local government under Local Government Law of Republic of China. Technically it is at the same level as Province, although Province is being streamlined. The city is led by the elected city mayor and supervised by the city council. Its subdivisions qu or districts do not have the autonomy power, instead they are administration units only. Further to the citywide election, there are urban villages (里 li) and neighborhood (鄰 lin) functioning as primary local autonomy entity.

Currently there are two administration centers, one in Anping District and another in Xinying District. They are former Provincial Tainan city government and Tainan county government respectively. Administration centers manages city wide affairs and developments such as education and city planning. Apart from administration centers, there are district offices functioning as local access point to the governmental services.

The city has generally been seen as a powerbase for the Democratic Progressive Party, especially in nationwide elections. Although before the merger, the Kuomintang (KMT) have always had more seats in the provincial Tainan city council and KMT won the presidential elections (2008) by a narrow margin in the city. On the other hand, Democratic Progressive Party always dominated former Tainan county. In the first municipal election, after the merger, DPP dominated the political demographics of the city. William Lai, a former member of the Legislative Yuan from the DPP won the first mayoral election in 2010.