| Apollo Chen | |
| Native Name Lang: | zh-tw |
| Honorific-Suffix: | MLY |
| Constituency: | Taoyuan 3rd |
| Order: | Member of the Legislative Yuan |
| Term Start: | 1 February 2012 |
| Term End: | 1 February 2020 |
| Predecessor: | Huang Jen-shu |
| Successor: | Lu Ming-che |
| Term Start2: | 1 February 1999 |
| Term End2: | 31 January 2005 |
| Constituency2: | Taipei 2nd |
| Birth Date: | 1957 9, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Taipei, Taiwan |
| Party: | Kuomintang |
| Nationality: | Republic of China |
| Alma Mater: | National Taiwan University (BA) Tamkang University (MA) |
Apollo Chen, also known as Chen Shei-saint (; born 28 September 1957) is a Taiwanese journalist and politician.
Born in Taipei, Chen attended Jianguo High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from National Taiwan University, followed by a master's in Chinese studies at Tamkang University. He wrote for the China Daily News and China Times and was also a television anchor on Asia Television.[1]
Chen served on the Taipei City Council from 1991 to 1998.[2] [3] His first stint in the Legislative Yuan began the next year and lasted until 2005. Chen was the spokesman of Lien Chan's 2000 presidential campaign.[4] [5] In between legislative stints, he was the director of the Taoyuan County Cultural Affairs Bureau.[6] [7] [8] Chen, backed by the Kuomintang,[9] ran for the legislature again in the Taoyuan County by-election of 2010, losing to by approximately 3,000 votes.[10] [11] He returned to the legislature in 2012. In 2014, Chen was suspended from the Kuomintang for casting a vote against the Land Administration Agent Act.[12] However, the censure did not prevent him from running for reelection in 2016, which he won.[13] It was initially reported that Chen had defeated by 390 votes.[14] [15] A recount by the Taoyuan District Court revealed that Chen had won by 389 votes.[16] [17]
His party's presidential candidate, Eric Chu, was not successful and subsequently resigned the KMT chairmanship. Chen declared his interest in the position a few days after Chu's resignation was finalized.[18] [19] On 22 February, Chen submitted a petition of 24,179 signatures to the party committee responsible for overseeing elections.[20] The party confirmed 10,710 of those signatures, validating his candidacy.[21] Chen finished fourth in the election, which was won by Hung Hsiu-chu.[22]
| 2016 Kuomintang chairmanship election | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Candidate | Party | Votes | Percentage | Result | |
| 1 | 78,829 | 56.16% | ||||
| 2 | 46,341 | 33.02% | ||||
| 3 | 7,604 | 5.42% | ||||
| 4 | Apollo Chen | 6,784 | 4.83% | |||
| Total votes | 337,351 | |||||
| Turnout | 41.61% | |||||
In March 2018, the Kuomintang announced that Chen had defeated Lu Ming-che and in a primary held to decide the party's candidate in the Taoyuan mayoral election.[23]
| 2018 Kuomintang Taoyuan City mayoral primary results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=80 | Candidates | width=80 | Place | width=80 | Results |
| Apollo Chen | 35.689% | ||||
| Lu Ming-zhe | 2nd | 33.067% | |||
| Yang Li-huan | 3rd | 31.245% | |||
| 2018 Taoyuan City mayoral results[24] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=35 | No. | width=150 | Candidate | width=120 | Party | width=75 | Votes | width=75 | Percentage | width=49 | |
| 1 | Zhu Mei-xue (朱梅雪) | Independent | 18,200 | 1.76% | |||||||
| 2 | Apollo Chen | Kuomintang | 407,234 | 39.42% | |||||||
| 3 | Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) | Independent | 51,518 | 4.99% | |||||||
| 4 | Wu Fu-tong (吳富彤) | Independent | 3,867 | 0.37% | |||||||
| 5 | Cheng Wen-tsan | Democratic Progressive Party | 552,330 | 53.46% | |||||||
| Total voters | 1,732,591 | ||||||||||
| Valid votes | 1,033,149 | ||||||||||
| Invalid votes | |||||||||||
| Voter turnout | 59.63% | ||||||||||