Vice President William Lai (賴清德) won the presidential election last night, delivering the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) a record third term in office.
It is the first time since direct presidential elections began in Taiwan in 1996 that a party has won the presidency in more than two consecutive elections.
Voting began at 8am at nearly 18,000 polling stations, with almost 20 million people eligible to cast ballots. Polls closed at 4pm, with vote-counting by hand starting almost immediately. There was no electronic, absentee, proxy or early voting.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) received 5,586,019 votes, or 40.05 percent of the total, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) won 4,671,021 votes, or 33.49 percent of the total, Central Election Commission figures showed.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) received 3,690,466 votes, or 26.46 percent of the total.
Voter turnout was 71.86 percent for the presidential election.
In 2020, the DPP’s presidential ticket won 8,170,231 votes, or 57.13 percent of the 19,311,105 registered voters, with the then-KMT presidential ticket garnering 5,522,119 votes (38.61 percent) and the People First Party’s ticket getting 608,590 votes (4.26 percent). The voter turnout in that election was 74.9 percent.
In a victory speech in front of thousands of jubilant supporters at his national campaign headquarters in New Taipei City, Lai thanked voters for their support.
“I want to thank Taiwanese for writing a new chapter in our democracy,” he said. “We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we will stand on the side of democracy.”
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
“Being the first election in this global election year, Taiwan has achieved the first victory for the alliance of democracies and successfully deterred interference from external forces,” he said. “It is all because we believe in electing our own president, and the nation will continue walk on the right path and not turn back.”
Lai reiterated that safeguarding peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait would be an important mission in his presidency, adding that he would work to maintain the “status quo,” while engaging in exchanges and dialogues with China based on an equal footing.
Noting that he had received congratulatory telephone calls from both of his opponents, Lai said that he has also congratulated the KMT and the TPP for their legislative wins and expressed the hope that they would work together for the nation.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Now that the election is over, the conflicts and high emotions that have occurred in the course of the campaign should end,” he said. “Taiwan’s 23 million people are a family. Let us unite and move the nation forward.”
Hou conceded defeat at a news conference at 8pm.
“I am sorry I have let everyone down,” he said, before bowing in front of supporters, adding that he had not tried hard enough “to make a transfer of power possible.”
Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok, Bloomberg
He said that a democracy means that people are masters of their government, and he fully respects Taiwanese voters’ decision, as he extended congratulations to Lai and his running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
He added that he hopes that Lai and Hsiao would not let voters down.
“The governing party must listen to the people’s voices,” he said.
Hou told his supporters to not give up hope.
“We can be sad, but not deflated,” he said.
“Let’s turn our sadness into a force to keep the DPP in check. That is the force needed to keep Taiwan moving forward, and also the force for safeguarding the Republic of China,” he added.
Ko, who has won a passionate support base in recent years, especially among young voters, also called a news conference at 8pm and conceded the election.
Despite losing, he said the TPP “has proven to the world that Taiwan is no longer just blue and green.”
“On the path of justice and sustainable development, I will not give up and I urge everyone not to give up either,” Ko said.
“You are the nation’s future, you are also the reason that the TPP and I will continue,” he said, adding that “democracy is ultimately Taiwan’s most important asset,” and the TPP would seek to build more support over the next four years.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is constitutionally barred from standing again after two terms in office.
The new president and vice president are to be sworn in on May 20.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
RSS