Taiwan ruling party’s Lai wins presidential election

Lai, the current vice president, faced repeated attacks from China, which called him a dangerous separatist.

William Lai Ching-te from the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has won Taiwan’s presidential election, despite warnings from China – which claims Taiwan as part of its territory – not to vote for him.

Lai, the current vice president, was in a three-way race with Hou Yu-ih from the conservative Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which was only founded in 2019.

Lai took 40.2 percent of votes cast, according to partial results from the Central Election Commission on Saturday.

Opponent Hou conceded defeat and congratulated Lai on his victory. He also apologised to KMT supporters for not being able to remove the DPP. Ko also conceded defeat.

The results were counted from 98 percent of polling stations across the island, according to the commission tally, which also showed that Hou had trailed with 33.4 percent of the vote.

Voters also elected politicians to Taiwan’s 113-seat legislature in elections closely watched by China and the United States.