During Taiwan's largest-ever local elections (commonly known as the 9-in-1 elections, where 9 levels of local official were being elected), the results of which came out on Saturday, the Kuomintang (KMT) Party suffered its "biggest setback" since its chief Ma Ying-Jeou (Ma officially resigned from the post Wednesday) took power as Taiwan's President in 2008, as he himself acknowledged at a news conference later that day.

"Ko Wen-je phenomenon"

The election of independent candidate Ko Wen-je as mayor of Taipei came as a big surprise to many, since the city has always been a solid base for the KMT. Taiwan-based newspaper China Times ascribed Ko's success to his unconventional campaign platform and advertising, which helped turn out young voters.

Some within the party believe the KMT's campaign strategy has relied too heavily on the traditional party machine.

"Candidates send out messages that are old-fashioned and uninspired," they say. "Many of them don't know how to take advantage of the internet – and that's why we lost the cyberspace battle in a landslide."

Wu Cheng-chong, professor of Taiwan Normal University said the "Ko Phenomenon" reflected the public's aversion to the two established parties' long "imprisoning" of the electorate in the "blue or green" affiliation and "unification or independence" identity.

"Ko has transcended the blue-green dichotomy from the very beginning and offered voters a third choice that goes beyond the inter-party dogfight, winning large numbers of voters in the middle," Wu said. "This has been key to his victory in the election."

"Punitive voting"

After the 9-in-1 elections, the KMT retains only 1 out of 6 municipality seats and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) now holds 13 out of 16 county posts across Taiwan.

An editorial published by the Taiwan newspaper United Daily News called the result "a solid vote of distrust in the Ma Ying-jeou administration".

"Normally, the outcome of such local elections is largely decided by the merits of the candidates themselves. But this time, even KMT candidates who have a good record and positive image have been thrown out of office, proof that they have been dragged down by the unsatisfactory performance of the Ma administration," the editorial said.

DPP member Chao Tien-lin said the elections were all about popular discontent. Even members of the KMT admitted that the public have cast "punitive votes" in the elections, venting their grievances against a number of issues ranging from rising gas and electricity prices to wage stagnation and food safety incidents since Ma was re-elected in 2012.

"In the past, if the KMT had put up a watermelon as candidate for an election it would have won; now the party would lose even if it was competing against a watermelon," a Taiwanese star host jibed.

What about 2016?

The 9-in-1 elections have always been regarded as a bellwether of Taiwan's 2016 elections. Now the question is: is the KMT out of the game already?

Taiwan newspaper Want Daily noted that although the DPP made considerable gains last week, it still has its own problems to deal with if it wants to win in 2016. DPP party chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen still lacks sufficient control over the different factions within her party and it remains unclear whether the municipality and county chiefs will be willing to share resources with her.

China Times also pointed out the possibility of internal strife within the DPP in 2016. But above all, the DPP has to introduce policies that can benefit ordinary Taiwanese people in order to win. For at the end of the day - whether the 9-in-1 will bring about the pendulum effect and send the KMT back in 2016, or pave the way for the DPP's ascendance to power two years from now – the only decisive factor is which party and politician can keep pace with Taiwan's public opinion.

The article was edited and translated from "九合一"，国民党输给了自己; source: People's Daily Overseas Edition.