DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen is poised to become the self-governing island’s first female president, returning the main opposition party to power after eight years under Nationalist President Ma Ying-jeou, who is constitutionally barred from another term.
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Eric Chu has delivered his concession speech, and announced that he was resigning from his chairmanship of the Kuomintang.
The DPP has traditionally leaned in favor of independence for the island from mainland China, which could anger Beijing, which views Taiwan as an integral part of its territory that is to be taken by force if necessary.
Pledging to maintain the “status quo of peace and stability” with China during her acceptance speech, Tsai vowed to “correct the mistakes of the past” but warned, “The challenges that Taiwan faces will not disappear in one day”. “Tsai hasn’t explained how she’ll deal with the question of Taiwan’s independence”, he said.
Polls have closed in Taiwan in a presidential election that is expected to propel the pro-independence opposition party to power.
Earlier Chu, 54, had conceded defeat telling his supporters: “We have failed the expectations of all voters”. Voting began Saturday in Taiwan’s presidential election in which the i… Her party suggested in May that Taiwan’s laws change to raise wages and cut work weeks from 84 per two weeks to 40 in one.
Tsai’s victory makes her only the second ever DPP leader to rule the nation.
China will be paying close attention to the results.
At stake are relations with an ascendant and increasingly assertive China under President Xi Jinping. “There is only one China”, she said.
Perhaps fearful of allowing discussion about democracy on an island Beijing says it owns, Chinese censors moved swiftly to block searches for Tsai’s name on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. She will know better than many that China remains paramount: Taiwan badly needs economic agreements from its biggest trade partner, particularly when export markets remain uncertain.
In 2014, hundreds of students occupied the parliament in the largest show of anti-Chinese sentiment on the island for years.
While the global community is busily assessing the impact a DPP government will have on stability in the region, the election campaign was dominated not by cross-strait relations but by issues such as affordable housing and pension reform.
She is due to be sworn in as president on May 20.
Tsai Ing-wen is poised to win the polls.
An unlikely political firestorm came on the eve of the election, sparked by a YouTube video from 16-year-old Taiwanese pop singer, Chou Tzuyu, of South Korean girl band Twice.
Beneath a decidedly wonkish demeanor, confidants say Tsai has a droll manner, and party officials have worked hard to cultivate a softer image, posting photos to social media of the now most powerful woman in the Chinese-speaking world with her two cats, Think Think and Ah Tsai.
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“This particular incident will serve as a constant reminder to me about the importance of our country’s strength and unity to those outside our borders”, she said.
