Ruling-party candidate Lai Ching-te has won Taiwan’s presidential election, securing a total of more than 5 million votes.
Lai from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had secured 40.2 percent of the roughly 13.9 million votes cast in a poll that saw a turnout of 70.6 percent, with ballots counted from 98 percent of polling stations, according to official data from Chinese Taipei’s Central Election Commission published on Saturday.
The DPP party has been in power for the past eight years under President Tsai Ing-wen.
Lai’s nearest rival Hou Yu-ih of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) trailed in second place with 33.2 percent.
Hou conceded defeat, saying, “When the people have made their decision, we face them and we listen to the voices of the people.”
The president-elect addressed people in his victory speech on Saturday, once again reiterating that he is “determined to safeguard Taiwan from China.”
China, which has sovereignty over the self-ruled island, warned in the run-up to the election that Lai is a dangerous “separatist” who could trigger “cross-Strait confrontation and conflict.”
The 64-year-old winner of the island’s crucial vote has promised to stick to incumbent President Tsai’s policy of maintaining the status quo, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty over Chinese Taipei.
Under the “One China” policy, almost all world countries recognize China’s sovereignty over Taiwan.
‘No tolerance for separatism’
China on Saturday affirmed that its reunification with Taiwan was “inevitable”, despite the election of independence-leaning Lai Ching-te in the vote.
The vote “will not impede the inevitable trend of China’s reunification”, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua said in a statement carried by state news agency Xinhua.
China also lashed out against Taiwan’s president-elect, vowing it would not tolerate “separatist activities” in the self-ruled island that it claims as its own.
“We will adhere to the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle and firmly oppose the separatist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ as well as foreign interference,” Chen asserted.
Saturday’s race has been closely watched by Taiwan’s major arms supplier, the United States, who also recognizes the Chinese sovereignty over the island, but has long courted Taiwan in an attempt to unnerve Beijing.
