PAYING TRIBUTE: KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (left) and vice-presidential candidate Vincent Siew attending a ceremony to honour Chiang Ching-kuo yesterday. President of Taiwan from 1978 to 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo was a key KMT figure. -- PHOTO: AFP

That was the burning question on the minds of DPP leaders who face the grim reality of having been nearly wiped out in Saturday's legislative polls.

The outcome was a doomsday scenario come true for the DPP. It managed to clinch only 27 of the 113 seats being contested - the party's worst-ever electoral defeat.

Its hope of winning the presidential race on March 22 now appears more remote than ever.

'The gap between the Kuomintang (KMT) and DPP is rather wide in the legislative polls. It would be tough for the DPP to turn the tide,' former DPP lawmaker Lin Choi-shui told the United Daily News.

However, the game is not over yet for the party, say observers.

A close scrutiny of the election figures shows that its core support base is still intact.

Besides, the presidential poll is decided by the entire electorate of Taiwan, unlike the legislative race, in which the pro-DPP constituency was massively segmented.

Of the seats up for grabs on Saturday, 79 were district seats contested by candidates while the rest were seats allocated to parties.

The DPP garnered 38.2 per cent of the total votes cast for district seats - which was higher than the 35.7 per cent it scored in the last legislative polls in 2004.

Yet, the party managed to clinch just 23.9 per cent of the district seats this time round - compared to 39.6 per cent then.

The increased support has failed to translate into actual seats largely due to the new 'single-member district' electoral system which favours the KMT.

The new system guarantees at least one seat for every county and city - including the sparsely populated islets which support the KMT and its allies.

Other key factors which figured prominently in DPP's defeat, included its poor governance record over the past eight years and graft scandals implicating President Chen Shui-bian and other party officials.

The party has to swiftly recover lost ground within two months - before the March 22 presidential election.

That is certainly not an easy task. For one thing, the DPP's dominance over southern Taiwan has weakened.

In a telling sign of its waning influence, it bagged only three of the nine seats in Kaohsiung - Taiwan's second largest city.

The DPP needs to fine-tune its campaign strategy which had centred on a controversial referendum on Taiwan's United Nations bid, analysts say.

That may no longer be an effective tactic to galvanise supporters if the low turnout - 26 per cent - for two referendums held concurrently with Saturday's polls were any indication.

DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh yesterday made an emotional appeal to voters to give his party one more chance.

Referring to Saturday's defeat, he said at a rally in Kaohsiung: 'We humbly accept the punishment meted out by the people.'

Mr Hsieh, who pledged to quit politics if he were to lose the race, also stressed the need to elect a DPP president to check on the KMT-led Parliament.

But analysts say he has to go beyond playing on voters' fears of one-party dominance or reunification with China.

'The DPP can no longer rely solely on playing the 'China' card to score points. Voters want to see real policy issues,' said Professor Yu Ching-hsin who heads the Election Study Centre at the National Chengchi University.

hwee@sph.com.sg