TAIPEI -- Since Taiwan's long-ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) lost last year's presidential election to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the island has slid into its worst recession in decades.
Faced with a combative KMT-controlled legislature, the first one-and-a-half years of President Chen Shui-bian's minority DPP administration have been marred by political turmoil, policy flip-flops and an often embarrassing lack of coordination.
Yet, the DPP can go into Saturday's general elections with a certain confidence thanks to deep divisions within the "pan-blue" opposition camp and virtual certainty that the KMT will lose its majority in the 225-seat Parliament.