Lai Ching-te, the candidate for Taiwan's presidential election portrayed by China as a “serious threat,” has won the vote according to almost final official results; Hou Yu-ih, the candidate for rapprochement with Beijing, has conceded defeat. In a press release, the European Union congratulates “all voters” who took part in “this democratic exercise.”
Published on: January 13, 2024 – 1:23 p.m
4 mins
The candidate of Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which favors rapprochement with China, conceded defeat in the presidential election on Saturday evening, January 13th. “I respect the final decision of the Taiwanese people” and “I congratulate Lai Ching-te and Hsiao Bi-khim (his vice president, editor's note) on their election and hope that they will not disappoint the expectations of the Taiwanese people.” stated Hou Yuh-ih in front of his followers. In his first speech, President-elect Lai Ching-te welcomed “a new chapter in our democracy.”
40.2% of the votes
Outgoing Vice President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) received 40.2% of the vote on Saturday evening, according to near-final official results. His main opponent, Hou Yu-ih, 66, a Kuomintang (KMT) candidate who favors rapprochement with Beijing, received 33.4% of the vote. The third candidate, Ko Wen-je, 64, of the small Taiwan People's Party (TPP), who portrays himself as anti-establishment, came third with 26.4%.
Taiwanese also voted to renew the 113 seats in parliament. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), writes our correspondent in Taiwan, Adrien Simorreon the other hand, it loses its absolute majority. He will therefore be forced to confront the third party, the People's Party of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. This party caused a surprise by campaigning on domestic issues such as housing prices, low wages and corruption cases – all issues that worry the younger generation. His position on the relationship with China remains unclear.
Explosive topic
Hou Yu-ih said he hoped that “regardless of the turbulence that has marked the electoral process, everyone will be united after the vote to tackle the future of Taiwan.” All week, Beijing has maintained its diplomatic and military Pressure increased. According to the Taiwan Defense Ministry, five Chinese balloons crossed the median line separating the autonomous island from China on Thursday, also detecting 10 aircraft and six warships. On Saturday, AFP journalists observed a Chinese fighter jet over the city of Pingtan, the closest city to Taiwan. And the hashtag “Election in Taiwan” was blocked on the Chinese social network Weibo this morning.
Taiwan's status is one of the most explosive issues in the rivalry between China and the United States, the territory's main military backer, and Washington plans to send an “informal delegation” to the island after the vote. A conflict in the Taiwan Strait could have devastating consequences for the global economy: the island supplies 70% of the world's semiconductors and more than 50% of the world's containers pass through the strait.
Lai Ching-te, of humble origins
The 64-year-old son of a miner, vice president under Tsai Ing-wen for four years, studied at Harvard in the United States and was initially a doctor at the hospital in Tainan, in the southwest of the island. Unlike the majority of the Taiwanese political class, he came from a humble background and was raised as a child by his mother after his father's death. Described as combative and combative, Lai Ching-te, who also calls himself William Lai, decided to enter politics in 1996 when Beijing was conducting missile tests around Taiwan at the time of the first democratic presidential election.
“I decided it was my duty to participate in Taiwan’s democracy and help protect this nascent experiment from those who would do it harm,” he testified in the Wall Street Journal last year. Initially deputy mayor of Tainan, he became prime minister of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2017. Beijing described him and his Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, Taipei's former representative in Washington, as a “dangerous pro-independence duo.”
(With AFP)
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