The elections were also considered to be legitimising the Kuomintang's rule on the island, while attempting to strive for more support from the United States.

Despite promising the implementation of reforms including local elections, Chen Yi, Chief Executive of Taiwan Province, secretly asked for reinforcement from mainland China to suppress the uprisings.

After the defeat in the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government retreated to Taiwan in 1949.

In Taichung mayoral election, lawyer Yang Chi-hsien (楊基先), with opposition background, defeated Kuomintang candidate Lin Chin-piao (林金標).

Kuomintang members were reportedly forced to canvass for Lin and collect name and address of at least fifty voters, which angered some of the residents.

In the memoir of Henry Kao, later Mayor of Taipei, then-chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government K. C. Wu convinced incumbent mayor Wu San-lien (吳三連) to run for re-election and fully supported him after considering multiple non-KMT candidates were elected, making him the first government official that supported opposition candidate.

Following a widespread campaign by the KMT, the party-backed candidate Lu Tsuan-hsiang (盧纘祥) was elected in the second round despite losing the first.

The election result was annulled by court as Liu was serving in the military and thus unqualified as a candidate, therefore triggering a by-election in July 1951.