Taiwan's voters will go to the polls in less than 48 hours to elect mayors, councilors and ward chiefs in elections which are local in nature but pivotal in their true significance. According to the Central Election Commission, more than 10.6 million people are eligible to vote in five existing or soon-to-be-created special municipalities under direct jurisdiction of the central government, all of which are Taiwan's population centers. That compares with nearly 17.73 million registered voters in the 2008 presidential election. Although they will not result in a transfer of power on the national level, these elections are being closely watched because they involve constituencies with 13.7 million people, or 60 percent of Taiwan's total population, and their outcome is likely to have profound implications for the country's future political development. Both Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have campaigned aggressively to try to win the high- profile mayoral seats up for grabs in Taipei, Xinbei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. At present, the KMT holds power in Taipei City and Taipei County (soon be elevated to a special municipality called Xinbei City) in the north and both of the county-level administrative districts (Taichung City and Taichung County) that will form the newly expanded Taichung City in central Taiwan. The DPP currently has control of southern Taiwan's Tainan City and Tainan County, which will be merged to form an expanded Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County, which together will become a new city bearing the old name. Facing the same challenges that the world's other governing parties have faced in elections since the 2008-2009 global financial crunch, the KMT's hold on its seats in northern and central Taiwan is believed to be more vulnerable than the DPP's control in the south. One of the most intensely watched races has been the mayoral election in Taipei, Taiwan's political and economic nerve center. With two directly elected mayors of Taipei -- Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou -- moving on to become president of Taiwan in 2000 and 2008, respectively, the post has been widely seen as a stepping stone to the presidency. Controlled by the KMT for the past 12 years, Taipei is considered a stronghold of the KMT-led pan-blue camp, which favors a conciliatory approach toward China. Incumbent Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin, a KMT stalwart seeking a second term, is running against a strong challenge from Su Tseng-chang, a former premier and DPP chairman. Three independent candidates are also running but are not expected to have little impact. In Taipei's four previous mayoral elections, no DPP candidate has ever gained over 50 percent of the vote. Chen Shui-bian had the best showing, when he lost his bid for re-election in 1998 to Ma Ying-jeou with 45.9 percent of the vote, compared with Ma's 51.1 percent. A KMT-splinter party candidate took the remaining 3 percent. Chen won the 1994 election with 43.7 percent of the vote because of a split in the KMT camp. Su, a two-term Taipei County magistrate, hopes to expand the party's support base in the city and break the KMT's dominance in a race seen as being neck and neck. In the neighboring Taipei County, the tight race is also being closely observed. After its upgrade in December, the new Xinbei City will replace Taipei City as the country's largest metropolis with a population of 3.889 million. The race pits KMT candidate Eric Lilun Chu against DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, both of whom are considered their parties' best possible candidates for this key battleground. Chu, a two-term Taoyuan County magistrate and a former vice premier, is trying to maintain his party's grip on the county won in 2005 by the outgoing magistrate Chou Hsi-wei. Chu's opponent is a law professor-turned politician who served as the previous DPP administration's top China policy planner and vice premier. She is seeking to help her party stage a comeback in the district that it governed from 1989 to 2005. In central Taiwan, DPP candidate Su Jia-chyuan seems to be fighting an uphill battle against incumbent Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu. Both Taichung City and Taichung County have been held by the KMT since 1989, except for 1997-2001. Hu, a popular former foreign minister known for his wit and quick reflex, has relentlessly pushed for upgrading and expansion of Taichung City during his nine years in office. He has worked hard to secure support from major political factions in Taichung County to give him solid backing throughout the new constituency in Saturday's election. The DPP's Su, a two-term magistrate in the rural county of Pingtung in southern Taiwan and a former minister of agriculture, has pushed his candidacy hard in Taichung County, where agricultural issues are important, hoping to use it to upset Hu's advantage in the city. The mayoral race in the southern city of Tainan has been given less media attention than those in the other four constituencies because it is widely seen as a shoo-in for the DPP. Unlike the situation on the national level, the DPP is not viewed exactly an opposition party in Tainan City and County. The area, with a combined population of more than 2.7 million, has long been a DPP stronghold. Tainan County, which is heavily populated by farmers and fishermen, has been held by the DPP since 1993 and Tainan City since 1997. In 2004, when the DPP's Chen Shui-bian was seeking reelection as president, he gained 64.8 percent of the votes in his home county of Tainan and 57.8 percent in Tainan City. Although by 2008 the DPP's popularity had plummeted nationally due to corruption charges against Chen, the party's support in the region remained strong. The DPP lost the presidential election that year, but its showing in Tainan County was 56.2 percent and in Tainan City 49.3 percent. It is this kind of unwavering support that DPP candidate Lai Ching-te, a 51 -year-old medical doctor who has served as a legislator representing Tainan City since 1999, is counting on in his current race against the KMT's Kuo Tien-tsai, a former educator. The election in the new Kaohsiung municipality is perhaps the most complex of all the mayoral races because of a split in the DPP. Incumbent Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu of the DPP is the clear frontrunner in the race, but talk of 'strategic voting' has added some intrigue to the final outcome. Chen's main threat appears to be incumbent Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing, who withdrew from the DPP to enter the race as an independent after losing the DPP primary to Chen. The greater Kaohsiung area is also considered a DPP stronghold, although its advantage in the past has been in Kaohsiung County, with voters in Kaohsiung City more evenly divided. Though the DPP has held Kaohsiung City for 12 years, its wins in 1998, 2002 and 2006 were all by relatively narrow margins. With attention focused on the battle between Chen and Yang, KMT candidate Huang Chao-shun seems to be marginalized, despite having served as a legislator representing Kaohsiung City for the past 17 years. The KMT has been working hard to avoid having Huang end up on the bottom of the pile, which could push the party's percentage of the total vote in the five races below that of the DPP. 