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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the