Taiwan’s ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), secured a historic third term on Saturday as Vice President Lai Ching-te won the country’s widely watched presidential election with 40.05 percent of the vote.
64-year-old Lai, along with his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim – Taiwan’s former representative to the United States – won a total of more than 5.5 million votes.
Taiwan’s electoral system is based on first-past-the-post voting, awarding the victory to the presidential-VP pairing with the highest percentage of votes.
Turnout on the self-ruled island was put at more than 70 percent with some 19.5 million Taiwanese eligible to vote.
A favourite to succeed incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, who is due to step down at the end of her second consecutive term in May, Lai’s win was in line with previous forecasts.
Lai ran against the main opposition party’s – the Kuomintang – candidate Hou Yu-ih , who came in a close second with 33.5 percent of the vote and the Taiwan People’s Party’s Ko Wen-Je who trailed both candidates with only 26.5 percent.
In his victory speech, Lai said he would maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but pledged to defend the island from Chinese belligerence.
“We are determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threats and intimidation from China,” he told supporters.
“We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we will stand on the side of democracy,” he said.
Communist China claims democratic Taiwan, separated from the mainland by a 180-kilometer (110-mile) strait, as its own and refuses to rule out using force to bring about “unification”, even if conflict does not appear imminent.
Beijing, which before the poll called Lai a “severe danger” and urged voters to shun him, said Saturday the result would not stop “the inevitable trend of China’s reunification”.
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