TAIPEI -- Taiwan continues to feel the aftershocks of the political earthquake that hit last Saturday, when Democratic Progressive Party leader Chen Shui-bian's presidential victory rocked the foundations of party politics on an island that has been ruled by the same party for more than half a century.
The party that the Chen and the DPP ousted, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), has run Taiwan since the end of World War II. The KMT didn't lift martial law until 1987.
Under the guidance of President Lee Teng-hui, chairman of the KMT, Taiwan started down the road to democracy, holding its first direct presidential election in 1996.