"From whatever angle you look at it, the year-end elections have great symbolic and real significance," wrote Michael Huang of the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica. They are not only the first elections since the lifting of martial law, they also represent an unprecedented "participation explosion."
「今年年底的選舉，不管從那一個角度來分析，都是極具象徵與實質意義的關鍵」，中研院民族所研究員蕭新煌在一篇專文中指出，這不但是解嚴後的第一次大選，黨禁開放的第一遭政黨對峙，也是一次新人輩出、參與「爆炸」的空前情景。