Incumbent Taichung Mayor Jason Hu vowed to work for a brighter future after winning the mayorship of a new expanded Taichung City, but he acknowledged that his narrow margin of victory was a 'warning signal.' The Kuomintang's (KMT's) Hu garnered 730,284 votes, or 51.12 percent, beating his rival from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Su Jia-chyuan, who won 698,358 votes, or 48.88 percent, according to final vote counts issued by the Central Election Commission. Hu thanked his supporters at his campaign headquarters, saying he would go to every corner to listen to people's voices in the new municipality, to be created by merging the existing Taichung City with neighboring Taichung County. The new special municipality, to be established on Dec. 25, will have a combined population of around 2.6 million, making it the third largest city by population in Taiwan. Hu ran well in the existing Taichung City that he has led for the past nine years, winning six of eight voting districts, but he only won 10 of 21 voting districts in Taichung County. Hu admitted that the 'small margin' of victory was a surprise, after many polls indicated he enjoyed a comfortable lead in the race, with some showing him holding double-digit advantages. 'But what counts in an election is to win, and the feeling of winning is good,' Hu said. He described the low margin of victory as a 'warning signal' and said he would have to reflect on why the voters were not satisfied, or why they had not gone to the polls because they thought he would win anyway. Hu said the victory showed that Taichung residents still had 'expectations for the future and they will not tolerate the city going downhill.' Hu, 62, a former Taiwan foreign minister and representative to the United States, is known for his sense of humor and expertise in international affairs. He has been mayor since 2001, winning his second term in 2005. when he garnered 58.34 percent of votes against his DPP rival, Lin Chia-lung, who had 39 percent. The mayor has worked hard to boost the city's tourism and economic development and has also taken pride in promoting culture and art in the central city, boasting that Taichung citizens now attend an average of 35 cultural events a year, up from 3.8 a year when he took office. Su's supporters cried after learning the election results, but he ran a strong race in a constituency that was considered the safest of the five municipality races for the KMT because of Hu's high popularity and credible performance. Su, a two-term Pingtung County magistrate and former minister of the Council of Agriculture, made Taichung County his main battleground, where agricultural development is seen as an important issue by its 1.5 million residents. Su canvassed 625 wards and villages in the region twice in six months, traveling 28,000 kilometers, staging over 1,800 seminars, and shaking hands with tens of thousands of voters, hoping to close ranks with the voters to make up for his lack of time. Su even started his campaign from Heping Village, the remotest in greater Taichung and used a campaign theme of 'not letting Taichung County be marginalized' to win a lot of support from voters. 