This Week in Politics
Upcoming Taiwanese Presidential Election
Tsai Ing-wen has been the president of Taiwan since 2016 and has had a majority of the electorate in her camp every election. However, she is not seeking re-election, her party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has made Lai Ching-te their new leader. The Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) are challenging the incumbent DPP with the former being the traditional opposition and just a few percentage points behind the DPP. The recent rise of the TPP showcases dissatisfaction with both the establishment parties, the TPP has never run as successful a campaign as this one reaching about 29% in their best poll. The election results will have a profound impact on deciding the island's relationship with China in the coming years, traditionally the KMT has been pro-China and the DPP anti-China.
Sinn Féin Losses
The largest political party in Ireland according to the polls has seen a 4% drop in the polls in a matter of weeks with the voters dispersing relatively evenly among the electorate, most notably seeing voters shift towards the liberal and centre-right parties, Sinn Féin is clear left-wing. The left-wing party's rise to power happened just under 4 years ago with the party going from 13% to 29% in 3 months, even with the 4% drop the party is still doing very well. However, with eyes on the coming general election in Ireland, any loss as large as a 1% could be a game changer.
Finnish Presidential Election
Incumbent Finnish president Sauli Niinistö has stated that he will not be seeking re-election. This has created a political vacuum with one of Finland's important political positions up for grabs, the amount of candidates has gone from 4 in the previous election to 9 in this one. Most likely the winner will be from the centre-right National Coalition or the Greens with the National Coalition enjoying a small lead. The results will be a clear signal of the public's approval and respective disapproval of the new National Coalition government.
